We have a spot in our laundry room hallway where we chart the growth of the family. Nowhere else in the house is it acceptable to write on the walls, but on this space it is condoned and even encouraged. This tradition started at my Grandparent's home long before I was born. The first marks on our wall were made April 22, 2001. At that time, there was a big gap between Marshall's 6' 1'' mark and that of our children. At odd times we hear comments like, "I think I have grown. Come and measure me." or "Hey Jecia, I think I am taller than you. Let's go measure." This leads to all interested parties converging on "the wall" with Mom or Dad as the unbiased pencil toting judge. A new mark is made, labeled and dated and the verdict announced.
Jecia and Eliza reached their full height a few years ago, so now the boys use them as benchmarks of growth. Caleb passed Jecia while she was on her mission. He was thrilled to have her come home to a "big" brother. Ethan has yet to surpass Jecia, but it won't be long. Eliza was still 1/2 inch taller than Caleb when she left for Jerusalem in January. This morning Caleb felt certain that growth had occured. With pencil I hand, I measured marked and recorded the official results. And the winner is... Caleb by three quarters of an inch (5' 10 3/4 "). He's grown an inch and a quarter in one month. The upside to all of this is that he wears shorts 11 months of the year so I don't have to buy him new pants every two months. Shoes are another story.
Jecia and Eliza reached their full height a few years ago, so now the boys use them as benchmarks of growth. Caleb passed Jecia while she was on her mission. He was thrilled to have her come home to a "big" brother. Ethan has yet to surpass Jecia, but it won't be long. Eliza was still 1/2 inch taller than Caleb when she left for Jerusalem in January. This morning Caleb felt certain that growth had occured. With pencil I hand, I measured marked and recorded the official results. And the winner is... Caleb by three quarters of an inch (5' 10 3/4 "). He's grown an inch and a quarter in one month. The upside to all of this is that he wears shorts 11 months of the year so I don't have to buy him new pants every two months. Shoes are another story.
1 comment:
We carried on this tradition too! When we moved I carefully transferred all of the marks onto a piece of butcher paper so we can keep it with us wherever we end up.
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