There are some things in life that just make you more aware of the passage of time and make you feel older...your high school reunion, your own kids starting school. But the thing that really marks time for me and makes me feel my age is my brother.
My brother is almost 12 years younger than me. To put that difference into perspective, he was in kindergarten when I graduated from high school.
I can clearly remember the night he was born...September 3, 1986 at 10:37 pm. There was a severe rainstorm that night (the kind my dad calls a "gully washer"), and I was a little irritated because my mom and dad had picked me up early from gymnastics when my mom's water broke. He was a month early (after almost being 3 months early) and only 5 lbs, 4 oz. I remember thinking he looked like some kind of reptile because he was long and skinny, his skin was all wrinkly, and he was severly jaundiced. He didn't have a name for 3 days...we were originally told he was a girl, and then..surprise! It's a boy.
Here we all are: me, my sister Kristine, and my brother Sam. I'm about 13, Kristine's about 9, Sam's about 18 mths.
[Don't you love my hair (just one in a 8-year series of bad hair-dos), my sweater (which I'm sure came from a yard sale), and my cheesy plastic pearls? I'm also about 90% sure this pic was taken at either K-Mart or JC Penney. ]
Anyway.....
Here's my brother now:
He is 22 (so young!), married, and has a baby, Jake. Without getting into a lot of details, my brother chose a much harder road to adulthood than my sister and I, but he is really working hard to remedy that and has turned out to be a great Daddy.
And little Jake....well, he is simply the sweetest, happiest baby I have ever met! Always smiles and rarely crying.
Jake turned one last week, and of course, I had to make him something. Back in December, I wrote about the Quiet Book I made for my niece for Christmas. My sister says she loves it and takes it everywhere. So I made one for Jake for his first birthday.
The outside cover:
The inside cover:
Try me on!
The one I made for my niece was more "girly" (lady bugs & flowers), so I had to make this one my "boyish" (cars & turtles).
Lift the clouds...
What's inside????
It's a baby turtle!
Once again, I "super" sewed everything down to make sure no little choking hazards would come off.
Count the buttons (or play "I Spy") and pat the caterpillar:
I tried to cover several different activities on my pages: textures, counting, zipping, buttoning, velcro, "peek-a-boo," and "I Spy" to name a few.
Velcro the shapes....
Who's at the door? (With an unbreakable mirror inside!)
I'm really happy with the final result and I hope Jake loves it.
Happy Birthday, big guy, from your Aunt Jenn!
1 comment:
LOVE IT! Too bad I am done having babies!
Casey
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