Friday, August 6, 2010

Summer Reflections

I got an email today inviting me to the faculty kick-off party for the new school year. I knew the end of my summer break was fast approaching, but this makes it official. It is a strange thing when I reflect on this past summer. Somehow, it seems like the summer flew by but also lasted forever. It seems like only yesterday my daughter and I were eating donuts in my classroom getting ready to go handout final report cards, and yet I feel like it has been the most amazing and everlasting summer I can remember.

I suppose this has a lot to do with all of the excitement we managed to pack into this short two-and-a-half months. The summer started with t-ball. It seems like such a long time ago that I took my little girl to her first practice. In reality, it was only about ten weeks ago. T-ball season concluded on the same day our son was born: another huge occasion. I feel bad that my wife and I missed my daughter's last game and her getting her trophy, but something tells me that she will forgive us. She loves her baby brother and dotes on him constantly.

After the birth of my youngest son, it was only a few short weeks before I got to take my older son to his first major league baseball game. I wrote about it in my last blog in more detail, but let me just say here that I still can't wipe the smile off of my face when I think about it. All along the way, we enjoyed trips to the park and afternoons in my parents' pool watching my son demonstrate how fearless he is by doing back flips into the pool off of my shoulders while my daughter practiced all she was learning in swimming lessons. Oh, and I got the joy of watching my son find an outlet for his athleticism in tumbling class.

I spend a lot of time thinking about why time seems to fly and stand still at the same time as I get older. I think it is because as I grow and my family grows, I have more and more to look forward to, and one thing I know from childhood is that looking forward to something makes time do funny things. I remember looking forward to Christmas or birthdays and feeling on a day-to-day basis that they would never come but then waking up one morning and realizing it had arrived.

Having kids is kind of like that. I look forward to so many things with them, and it feels like these milestones and events will never come, but they do. I registered my oldest for kindergarten today. I remember when my middle child was born and wondering what his voice would sound like when he was finally able to call me daddy, and now he tells the most amazing stories and is able to tell me I'm the best daddy in the whole world in complete sentences. Now I find myself daydreaming about what it will be like when our youngest is old enough to run around and play with his big brother and sister, but I know that I will wake up one day and find that time has come. Some people might get a little sad to think about how fast their children grow up, and I suppose that someday I will look back and wish they were still my little kiddos, but for now, I am loving every minute of watching them grow and absolutely can't wait until I get to see them do the next thing for the very first time.

5 comments:

  1. Mr.Ogle I too sometimes feel the same way. I remember the begining of the school year always saying that I couldn't wait till my daughter was out. Then the time just went by so fast. My last days in high school are coming to an end very fast and I'm happy they are, but it could of went slower.

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  2. Although i can not relate to this besides watching my dogs grow up, this was touching. Haha. I can only imagine how awesome that feeling would be to take your son to his first MLB game, and be there for your daughters first t-ball game. It is crazy how fast time flies by
    -Chandler Milbourn 1st Hour

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  3. summer? what is summer? I am going straight from class to class. school to school. summer is an irrelivant concept at this point of my life.

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  4. my summer consist of me working and sleeping an if im not sleeping im probably goin to be on the xbox playing duty or 2k12 and beat people with the bulls

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  5. It sounds like you had a lot of fun that summer. My summers usually consists of those types of things too, and those mile stones that you reached you will remember for the rest of your life.

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