Let time stand still

Earlier this month, family and friends congregated in Grand Rapids to celebrate the upcoming arrival of little Elliot Wortz (my sister Renae is due in September). People came from New York. Georgia. Vermont, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Michigan (of course) for the shower. It was practically a mini family reunion for both sides of Renae’s family.

The big event went down up at the local Johnny Carino’s. We were originally going to have it at a local restaurant where we had my baby shower, but alas, it burned down a month ago. Seriously! It ended up being a blessing in disguise, because Carino’s ended up being so great. The food was really good…chicken parm, stuffed vegetable rigatoni (my personal favorite), lasagna, salad, crusty bread to dip in oil, and mini desserts in espresso cups. You have to love family style food…it just keeps coming…and you can keep eating. I actually think I ate more than Renae.

Kristin pulled off fhe party games without having to do any of the old standbys…like baby food tasting and melted candy bars in diapers. We went the more cerebral route which is much more up Renae’s alley, and played Baby Scattergories and “Guess the Children’s Book”. I did a little “schpeel” about the job description of a Mom, including the titles “expert”, “architect”, “entertainer”, “security blanket”, and “moral compass”. I am proud to say that even though I started to cry, I didn’t lose it…whew.

The decor was all my Mom…coordinated from the invitations to the place cards, menu cards, and custom made cookies on a stick perched in painted flowerpots. It was pretty amazing, actually, because the folks at Cookies By Design took these little stamped images of adorable animals and they recreated the picture and the color on round cookies. It was uncanny how close they matched.

The best part, though, was the time that we were able to spend together. Family came and went over the course of 10 days or so, culminating with the shower and a cookout at our house for about 16 people, including babies, on Saturday. Thankfully, it was a gorgeous night, so we were able to sit outside too and catch up on all the news…babies and new jobs and vacations.

After everyone had either headed to the hotel or found a place to sleep at our house, I finally hit the sack. I was crazy tired, but instead of conking out like I usually do, I lay in bed thinking about the weekend.

Images danced through my mind…Renae holding up teeny plaid pants with a huge grin on her face…Sam playing hide and seek with the kids…Mallory and Fiona posing together in the Boppy…Grammy playing Math War with Madi…Kristin doing sparklers with the kids…late night conversations with Mom & Dad…everyone playing Scoops and Elena setting a world record…Jeremy wearing their new Bjorn with a New Dad hat on…Fiona being held by everyone and Debbie wanting to take her home…Ben grilling 24 hamburgers plus hot dogs plus Boca burgers…Kristin putting up the flowers in Fiona’s room…Mom printing off pictures for everyone…Renae looking so cute with her Elliot-belly…

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I wished that I could freeze these moments in time…wished that my family could come over for a cookout any old Saturday and didn’t have to travel hours and hours…wished that no one had to leave.

But time doesn’t stop, even with bucketfuls of wishes. I still had to say goodbye, pack up the aerobed and the leftovers, and make the next week’s grocery list. It is now just a memory…one to be documented in scrapbooks and in Facebook photo albums.

Oh for time to stand still…to get a few more precious seconds with my family…

— Post From My iPhone