Thursday, April 11, 2013

Theme Thursday: Grow

Linking up once again with Cari over at Clan Donaldson!  Today's theme: grow.

I don't know if I'm supposed to be showing you plants and flowers and such-like growing things here, but I'm not going to do that, for a couple of reasons: 1--I still haven't raked away last fall's dead stuff in my perennial "gardens" (and I use that term loosely), so the new sprouts popping through wouldn't be shown to their best advantage right now; and 2--I've got just about the brownest thumb on God's green earth.

While I'm not good at growing plant life, I'm okay at growing boys; so I thought I'd offer some visible proof of this skill I've acquired, which was honed through blood, sweat, and tears over the past 30 years.

The youngest of my 5 boys, who was 5 whole years younger than his next oldest brother and was always in a hurry to grow, grow, grow so he could become one of the "big guys," liked to have us measure his height against that of his brothers on a regular basis.

Here are my bookend boys--sons #1 and #5--during one of our frequent measuring sessions back in 2000, when my oldest was 17 and his baby brother was 7.
The little guy was happy that he and his big bro were exactly the same height here...sort of. (We let him have his day in the sun.  We figured that eventually, with feeding and watering and time, he might really catch up.)


Here's the same pair of boys almost a decade later, on our oldest son's wedding day in 2009.
Catch up our baby did, and then some.  Yes, that boy did grow!  (And look, ma: no knees!)

They do grow, you know.  And before you know it, they're all grown up and you wonder where in the world all the years went.  Every mother of grown children chants that same mantra, but that's only because it's so true.

Okay, now head on over to Clan Donaldson to catch some other signs of growth!

18 comments:

  1. Wow did that boy shoot up! Great shots.

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    1. He's 6'2" now...and 20!! How did that happen?!

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  2. Oh my gosh. Love it. I look at how quickly my kids grow, and my bones hurt on their behalf.

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  3. Wow! That is so cute! Way to capture the theme. =)

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  4. I absolutely love this!! And I used the same theme, but yours is far more dramatic. What wonderful boys you have, blessed you are, mama.

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    1. Rebekah, thank you for these kind words...they touch me so much, especially today. Because tomorrow, my fourth son will be flying overseas for a 6-month deployment--and I'm sitting here wishing he was still a little guy, living under this roof where I could keep an eye on him. (Sometimes, you wish you could keep them young forever!)

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  5. That is amazing. I am going to get my camera out and take more pictures of my kids before they get too big! thanks for sharing..fun to see!

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    1. I am meeting the nicest people through this link-up! (And finding fun new blogs to read!)

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  6. Love it. Can't even imagine what it's like watching a child you reared getting married. I will be a mess. A mess I declare!

    Thankfully, I still have a looooooooong way to go as oldest boy is only 9 and oldest girl is only 7. And they just get younger from there.

    It sounds like you've raised some mighty fine boys, and as scary as deployment is I think God for our brave children who serve our country.

    God bless you and your family.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind comments! (By the way, your blog title is awesome!)

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  7. Ohmygoodness, I love this! I feel like my 3 boys (ages 2, 3, 5) are getting so big. I can't imagine what they will look like in another decade or two!

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    1. My husband always promised, when my boys were like a litter of energetic little puppy dogs, that one day they would be tall, strapping young men who would treat their mother like a queen--and that day has come. What a joy it is to be a mother of sons!

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  8. I LOVE this! What great pictures!

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    1. I have a whole series of pictures from this day, where Jack is standing back-to-back with Jim, then next to Sean, Dan, and Mike while they're on their knees. There's a funny one where Jack's standing next to a kneeing Mike and he's totally rubbing it in that he's taller! It's so funny!

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    2. I love that! You could almost devote a whole blog to some of your boys funny stories.

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  9. This is too cute! I love that your youngest ended up being tallest :)

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