Caleb James Garcia and Brent James Hendry

I don't have a photo to start this one yet.  I was hoping that someone had snapped a picture while I was taking a nap this afternoon with Caleb in our bed.  Apparently everyone came in and took a look at us--Brent and Nathan worried that I had forgotten to put a diaper on Caleb.  Lauren and Robert couldn't believe that the two of us were both asleep.

La and Rob went to the temple this morning and so Caleb was left with just Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Nathan.  He is such a different person when the two of them are gone.  He doesn't whine for sweets or chocolate--in fact, he didn't really want much food.  There was ice in his sippy cup after our walk around the block--and I offered him some water/juice in a big person glass--which he finished up.  Lunch was a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a big spoonful of peanut butter and some granola bar.

With his mom or dad around, he is constantly being fed.

Different circumstances, different expectations, different actions.

I shall definitely miss him when they move.

The living room is already a quarter full of boxes packed up and ready to go.  Lauren is doing her best to get things organized as quickly as she can.  I admire her methodology--which I totally lack.  She remembers things--and where they are.  I think that she looks forward to having her own space where I am not constantly "rearranging" her.  They have been here for about a year and a half.  It seems as if they had always been living out in the casita--and filling the shelf between the kitchen and TV room with stuff.  The TV room has been occupied with Caleb toys, books, and paraphernalia.  Her instinct to impose order on chaotic situations has provided her with various gifts from me--a vertical bookshelf and Caleb's own armchair.  Lauren is constantly looking for things to make and do with Caleb.  They are odd sometimes--often then come from Pintrest, but often they come from things that Caleb likes to do.  They "make soup" from odd things in a big bowl of water.  Caleb has taught himself to swim--and can now handle a solo trip from end to end.  He loves to splash--throwing rocks and pinecones into the drainage ditches along side the road.  He loves to pick flowers and fruit and bring them to Lauren.  He has dozens and dozens of books memorized.  He has a passion for any animal that swims--especially any BIG animal that swims.  Finding Dory has been a definite influence on the things he values and loves to revisit over and over.

Lauren has kept a vast photographic record of Caleb's growth--thanks to her iPhone camera.  From Grandpa Brent's childhood total of (maybe) a dozen or so pictures--to Caleb's multiple photos and videos per day:  keeping records of childhood events has experienced a revolutionary explosion.  Not that I mind--for I also take more photos of the things around me through the lens of my iPhone.

I am tempted to look at the iPhone X because of the improved lenses for selfie and outward facing photos.  It is just so easy to snap a photo of a list, map, product I want to remember--and events.  I wish that Megan would send more photos.  She is so overwhelmed with her life undertakings:  3 children, Church callings, husband, house, healthy cooking--and managing all of this with too little money and too small a car.  I feel grossly opulent when I compare my life to hers.  She turns 34 tomorrow.

I remember turning 34.  I was young then.  I am 58 right now--I still feel 34.  That makes me fairly normal, I think.

Last week I dragged Nathan behind me to a job fair at Palm Beach State College.  I talked to the vendors there and asked them about job openings for myself.  So strange, almost 60 and talking seriously about career opportunities.  I think that my dad officially retired at 62 . . . to take care of mom.  Mom's been dead for 25 years.

Think of a time in the future, when time as we know it is done.

Just for the record, I love Brent so very much.  He is my idol, my example, my champion, my love and the reason for the enchanted life I have lived these past 35 years.  This year, we celebrated our wedding anniversary by cleaning up after Hurricane Irma down in the Keys.  Chain saws, hauling branches, shoveling mucky leaves, delivering food supplies--being there with him made it wonderful.   Just for the record.