America's Next Top Model

Freestone is officially not a baby boy anymore. I know he's five and a half, but his cute little bowl cut gave me the illusion that he was still my baby. Now he has a faux-hawk and a new attitude to match. Scott captured Free's new look with pictures that brought tears to our eyes to notice how big he looks! It's exciting and terrifying at the same time.

The kids were watching Sandlot 2 Saturday. At the end, the narrator tells what happened to each of the boys in the picture when they grew up. One by one, the boys faded off the baseball diamond and disappeared. Ari asked me why the kids were disappearing, and I said, "Because they grew up." It made me so sad to think that these little people who make us laugh and cry will literally no longer exist as the children we love as they grow into the adults we will come to know.

The Sandlot made me so sentimental, I took three of the kids to Park City overnight. Golda stayed home for the play and Xanthe stayed home with Scott to bang on his cast and tease him to death. The rest of us shopped at the outlets, went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday and played Candyland at the condo all night. With that, I have another memory to store against the day when my little faux-hawk boy and his sisters fade into adulthood and no longer grace my life with their tender smiles and chubby, angelic faces.

Another reminder that childhood has yet to fly the coop around here is the new dog bed on Freestone's bed. Free made it out of a box and one of our best towels, and Star, with her hair newly cut, too, loves it. There is no sweeter reminder of boyhood than a loyal dog shadowing his every move. Haircuts I can handle as long as Star is there to watch over this little boy in his sleep and keep track of him all day as he slowly leaves the more ephemeral aspects of babyhood behind and almost imperceptably grows into a young man.