So, in all the pondering and mulling and considering I’ve been doing about giving up blogging altogether, I tried to remember why I started in the first place. I went through my archives, and I found that the posts I was most proud of, the ones that brought me some tears or a giggle or an “oh yeah, I remember that!” were posts about R.
And then it hit me – she was the reason I started to write here in the first place. I am a terrible chronicler of life. I have a scrapbook with five pages complete. Anyone who looks at it would know that in 2001, I got engaged in New Orleans, tried on wedding dresses and had a really cute puppy. And that’s it. R’s baby book is not much better – all the places where you’re supposed to “place photo of baby crawling here” or “place photo of baby’s first meal here” are blank, and a lot of the written entries are empty as well.
But this blog, oh, the difference! Here, I can read about when she started walking for real, when I first started to realize that I needed to start letting her go already, little milestones like throwing a ball, the time she ate dog food, our first family vacation, her evolution into Miss Bossy, switching her from home day care to a preschool center, her trouble with transitions, our girls weekend, and talking about God.
So I am resolving to keep this up, to try to write more about R. Maybe when she is older, she will understand how much I loved her and struggled with doing the right thing in raising her. And maybe she will also be able to realize, sooner than I did about my own mother, that I am not perfect and I make mistakes and that’s all okay.
How can I watch this little girl grow up before my very eyes and not record it somehow?
Lede Me On 
Why is it we professionally trained storytellers have such difficulty keeping up with the stories of our lives in ‘traditional’ ways? I can’t keep a regular personal journal to save my life, but I can blog on a relatively consistent basis (although that goes in cycles too…) Perhaps we’re not happy unless we’re doing the writing publically? 😉
R is gorgeous!
Num, num, num. I want to eat her up, she is so adorable.
Glad to see you have rediscovered your muse, because A)We love hearing about R and you guys and B)I am sure R will really appreciate (and so will you) these reminders in the future when she has grown.
She is growing up to be a very lovely young lady! Thank you for continuing to share her with us.
I’m glad you decided to stick it out! R is precious and it’s been a lot of fun watching her develop. Thanks for deciding to stay with us!
I’m terrible at scrapbooking. I have one scrapbook. It has puppy pictures of Rufus in it. Lame.
I’m so glad you are going to keep blogging! I love it when your posts pop up in my reader!
So like me…
Though, I’m even bad about the keeping up with milestones on the blog, too. Sheesh. I know what you mean, though. You are not alone. 🙂
And that picture is just precious.
Yay for keeping up the blog. Sometimes I feel the same way, like “should I go on?” but then it does feel good not to be a quitter.
Keep it up!
I’m glad you’re not quitting blogging. I’m horrible about my reading lately, but I like checking your site for updates.
Also, why have we not gotten our kids together yet? I don’t know how much fun R would have with Kara, seeing as her biggest accomplishments are saying DADADADA and walking maybe five steps a couple of times, but I would like to see you! If you’re looking for adult time only, do you enjoy painting? 🙂