Remember When...

Most people do not remember much from their childhoods. If you're my Husband, you're lucky if you can remember anything more then 5 years ago. We "joke" that his memory started fleeting in college. Late nights, little sleep and enough beer in his 4 year span to encircle the earth. Twice. So remembering events from his childhood are not likely. Even with my stellar memory (ha!) there is not a whole lot that stands out before the age of 5. There are a few things I remember as a three year old, but not many. But that makes me start to think - what memories that Landon is making now will carry with him to adulthood?

Landon's ability to recall events and describe them is becoming quite impressive. One of the most common phrases from his mouth lately starts with, "Remember when...". Then he'll recall something that happened, yesterday, last week, last month or even last year. I'm often blown away at the details he remembers of these insignificant events. Random walks we've taken with the dogs and things he's seen. Or sitting in front of Nana & Papa's house in Yuma, eating popsicles with his cousins. I wonder if he'll remember yesterday and having thrown Daddy's work Blackberry into the toilet and trying to flush it? Yes, you read that correctly. Dustin's 4 day old cell phone that was issued to him by his company took a swim in the ole pot, courtesy of our 3 year old. Will he remember that Mommy didn't yell at him? Will he remember how much trouble he got in? Will he remember how disapointed Daddy was when he got home from the gym? Or will he just remember that cell phones don't work after they get wet? Either way, a big lesson was learned for all of us. Mommy and Daddy need to remember to not leave things laying around within Landon's reach. At least not unless we want to fish it out of the toilet.

Recently when we were driving home, Landon said from the backseat, "I don't want to go to jail Mommy." It took me a minute to even realize what he said. Before I even had a chance to blurt out "What?!" he also said, "I don't want the Policeman to take me to jail Mommy. I wear my seat belt." It dawned on me that weeks before Dustin and I had told him that if he kept unbuckling his seat belt, he was going to have to go to jail because it was against the law to not wear our seatbelts. Was it the best thing for us to say to him? Probably not. But it also worked, right? It's against the law to not buckle up and he understood the consequences. However, it did make me feel guilty that this has been weighing on his mind for who knows how long. Has he been thinking about spending time in jail with "bad guys" since our initial conversation? I hope not.

I hope instead of remembering us telling him he'll go to jail for taking off his seat belt, or telling him that if he does not turn his listening ears on Right. This. Second. He's going to get a a spanked bottom and have to sit in his room and think about it...I hope he remembers snuggling on the couch with a blanket when it was raining outside. Or the trips we take to the park or playing hide and seek in the house. Or having picnic lunches with Mommy and Daddy on the patio of the winery we visit, known to Landon as "The Batcave." I hope he remembers the fun times. The good times the most.

Hoping to create even more good memories that Landon remembers 20 years from now, we're heading out on a family vacation next week. It's been 2 years since we've had a "beach vacation" so we're all feeling it's long over due. We're staying with Nana & Papa Steve in a beach house down in San Diego. We have very little planned, other then sitting our butts on a beach towel and a trip to Sea World with Ramsey, Becca & their kids Grayson and Molly. I have a feeling that there will be very little sitting involved with Landon, but I'm okay with that. He's been talking about buildling sand castles for his guys for well over a month and we're all looking forward to the time together and away from the office. Four more days of work this week and I'll be mentally checked out on vacation. Making memories with my two best boys.

As a side note, hope you enjoyed the family pictures we had taken this past week. Debbie Brown photographed our wedding 5 years ago and we finally scheduled a long over due family portrait session. These are only a few of the hundreds she took.