Eight is Great

Happy happy 8th birthday to my wonderful, handsome, sweet Jack, then and now.

Favorite Fruit

Watermelon eating contest at Berenice Gardens Farmer's Market

Winning Smile

Sister Cecelia's Komen Day wig and puppet hedgehog

Easter '08

Harvest Fest '12

Getting clean

Dry Ice Experiment

Captain Jack

Last Day of School 2013

May you always grow, but never change too much.

I read this poem this year, and fell in love with it.  He's a little young, but I cannot wait to share someday when appropriate.  At 8, I already see signs that he's not the type to set down on the stairs.  That sweet smile hides a fierce inner drive, burning bright, already trailblazing.

Mother to Son

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.