There are plenty of mundane mornings and task-filled evenings. And there are plenty of minutes and hours of magic, wonder, and weird amazement that envelops our time these days. Almost always, it’s as if the same moments didn’t just happen. Or maybe they did, but they didn’t hold the same weight 50 something days in as they did 70 something days in, and instead of combusting, there are times when discovery happens instead.
A few days ago, the kids found a forgotten coloring book with stickers, and a poster in a pile of art stuff stacked on the bottom shelf of their art rack. A day later, we ran into Oak’s teacher, who gifted him a passed down double-coloring book that also had posters. Soon enough, they were hoping to scavenge tape and layer the posters on their walls.
I try not to look at my children with nostalgia as often as I once did, in fear I may be pulling away from the unique situation that is today, but I couldn’t help it.
I was 11 and 12 when posters of The Spice Girls, B2K, and any other artist I was compulsively obsessed with loaded my walls. My side of the room was inarguably mine. My sister’s was hers. And while River taught Oak how to tape the poster at the corners, so it wouldn’t leave marks , I’m not sure I expected this so soon. More than that, I’d forgotten about this stage in childhood and teenage life entirely.
Discovering things is one thing. Rediscovering them (these days, in particular) is an entirely different thing.
Filing it as: Remember that one time there was a pandemic and you stayed home from school and plastered posters on the walls against the new bunkbed and imagined robots were rocking us in canopies to sleep when you drifted off?
Any new discoveries in your family, lately?
Photograph by Clara Nebeling via Vogue Italia
My daughter is 17, about an inch shorter than me, and slimmer, so she fits the clothes I WISH I still fit (but I gained weight and outgrew them a few years ago during a stressful time at work. I still have them, because I’d like to fit into them again.). It’s fun watching her just show up in my clothes. 🙂 She wears a black acrylic mock turtleneck sweater that was my mom’s in the 1960s (think Audrey Hepburn) and then mine—and now hers, in her own style. Slim mock turtleneck, bell bottoms, Doc Martens, and a homemade kerchief. Before you know it, you’ll turn around and River will be shopping in your (much more stylish than mine ) closet. 🙂
I love this GM!! I feel like I can see those days one da happening. Did she find all of the clothes during this specific time period? It’s interesting to think about all the things they’ll have learned (and learned to love) during this specific time in their lives.