The Dixie Cup...Again

For all of you who read my blog you may remember a similar picture I posted sometime within the last year of a photo similar to this one...of Landon six years ago. Well, as some of you may know, in kindergarten around here at the end of the year they give the children a "Dixie cup" with a seed in it. I don't know what really leads up to this activity, whether they are learning about seeds or what, but Jaxon comes home with one this year. We didn't plant it for a few weeks, because I'm hoping he will forget about it, because I remember Landon's seed, and what came of it. So...Jaxon doesn't forget, he wants to plant it. We're outside one evening, and Luana is outside with us, and Jaxon wants to plant it right out front in the flower beds. When I cast a nervous glance at Luana she nods her head and mouths the words "it will die" (in other words, go ahead and plant it right in front, it won't be there long). And I'm thinking, "no, it won't die". I've been through this before, it will grow and grow and grow. But he said it was a sunflower, which grow straight up, so I figure it will be ok. So it starts growing, the sunflower is growing...and so is something else!!!!! Another pumpkin!!!! So...anyway, of course it has taken over the front flowerbed, along with weeds and whatever else. I wanted to pull it up, I wanted to get rid of it. But then I remember. There will never be another one. I will never have my little Kindergartner come home with the seed he has proudly planted and expect me to plant it. I will never get to see him get on the "Kindergarten" bus, or be able to spend half of the day with just him. And since I don't buy Dixie cups in miniature sizes, there will never be another one of those either.

I figure it must only be painful to see our kids grow up until they are grown up. I think after they get married parent's must in a small way write them off. I mean, I'm turning 39 this week and I can promise you my mom will not be in the background with a silent tear running down her cheek thinking...she's 39 today. My little girl is 39. So, I guess along with the joys of seeing our children grow up, we have to also see their smallness, their innocence, grow up also. That is in fact why we do have children....to raise them. No one is out there looking at their two year old hoping they'll be two forever. So here is a picture of my 1st grader, my 7th grader, and my 9th grader. So I can remember how they looked on their first day of school, as they were growing up.