Lots of things have happened lately and I've thought, "I should write that down." But then I didn't, of course. It seems alright to write them down now, though. In no particular order, here are some things I've been meaning to jot down.
Elijah Ruben
Elijah is named after my brother Ruben who passed away when he was 21 years old. (No apologies for that, please. It's not your fault, and that's just how life goes sometimes.) When I was pregnant with Elijah I felt that Rob had an extra special connection to this boy coming our way, so I asked Rob to name our son. Alas, the name came to me first. Rob came home one day and I said, "Sorry, his name is Elijah. But the middle name is all yours!" I was touched when some time later Rob said, "I've been thinking about it. What about 'Ruben'?" We called my family to make sure no one objected and then happily gave Elijah the legacy of being named after great men. Elijah the prophet, and Ruben my brother.
It never occurred to me then that this would lead a small boy to wonder about his namesake. We've shown all of the kids pictures of their uncle, told them stories, let them know that we loved him (past tense) and that we love him (present tense) and that we'll see him again and that he'll love them when he sees them on the other side. I try to make it a positive thing for them.
Elijah is a sensitive child. One night not too long ago he called me into his bedroom at night. He was crying. I asked him why he was crying and he said it was because he was sad that he'd never met his Uncle Ruben. We went over the normal stuff again: that Elijah is lucky to be named after his uncle, that Ruben loves him and wants him to be good. Elijah was still sad. "I just want to see him, Mom." "Me, too, buddy." I hugged him and we both cried a little.
When I left his room that night I thought, "I guess that's what I get for naming him Ruben." But then I remembered that I didn't name him Ruben, Rob did. I've always been grateful that my husband is such a giving, generous man. He wanted Ruben to be remembered and honored, even though Rob never met him. I have some good men in my life, that's for sure. I love them dearly.
Rob's a Pack Rat
No joke. When mildew hit our basement, I decided it was a great time to re-evaluate what was down there. Not much was fully destroyed, but some things were close, including a box of baby clothes saved for my kids' kids, and ancient boxes of memories.
I went through 3 boxes of letters I'd saved from High School and threw them away. They were special to me once, but I hadn't looked at them for years and I just didn't see the point in hanging on to them any longer. Then I encouraged Rob to go through his boxes, too.
It was hard for Rob. He's very sentimental when it comes to stuff like that (for instance, he loves music boxes. After he bought me 2, I told him he couldn't buy any more, even if he does love them. He gives me the same music box for Christmas every year and I love it. Rob's adorable). He opened his box of treasures and parted with:
- a blue fuzzy that he'd saved since he was 7 years old. When Miciah asked if she could use it for some crafts Rob said, "No!" Then I gave him The Look and he said, "Okay."
- 2 baseballs: his homerun baseball from a little league championship game
and the ball signed by his entire league champion team. When Elijah asked if he could sign it, too, Rob said, "No!" I gave him The Look again and Rob said, "What?! He wasn't on the team." I just shook my head.
- a two dollar bill given to him by his grandmother when he was 12
- some freaky-looking gold mice with red eyes. There were 3, one for each kid. Perfect.
- a stuffed animal mouse that Teancom immediately claimed and loved and named Jumpy because he loves to jump. (Did you know that Rob collected mice? Weird, right?)
Of my favorite Non-Treasures were:
- Rob's 5th Grade Spelling Bee trophy. Umm, yeah. A spelling bee. Here's Rob with the trophy before we pitched it:
- Best All-Round Student for 2nd grade. SECOND GRADE, PEOPLE!
- 2 mildew-covered scholar athlete awards. 1 highest GPA on the football team award (I said, "That's not an accomplishment. You could have done that with a 2.3 GPA.").
and my favorite, favorite, favorite trophy:
A Good Try Attendance Award for 2nd grade. ... Let that sink in for a moment. ... Awesome, right?
Love that Rob husband.
And that's it for today.
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