First Child Syndrome

I was reminded today of how funny [READ: fanatic, extreme, psycho] I was about my first child.

It all started with me just looking for some extra party invitations I needed that I may or may not have stored in a file cabinet drawer.
The drawer was hard to open and tread through because it was full of....well, stuff [READ: junk].
So, in an attempt to find party invitations, I started going through ALL the contents of the drawer.
And I found a TON of artwork that I had saved from Ryan's earliest "budding artist" days.
Most of which I had forgotten about and never looked at again.

Also, with most of it I tried hard to figure out WHY I had saved it.

Case in Point: Just look at this FINE piece of pottery.

And WHY have I saved this Halloween wreath with real candy corn? (most of which have fallen off and disappeared to who knows where, but they weren't in the file drawer.) I don't want to even think about the creatures that may have enjoyed those!

Ya gotta feel sorry for this clown/robot/jack-in-the-box with his missing eye, detached leg, and crumpled hat. For some reason, I thought it was worthy to save. (It must be the soft spot I have for the "underdog.")

Now, this drawing is just SO impressive!

I mean, it just doesn't get much better than this work of art...notice it's "colorfulness!"

And, look! I must've been so proud at his first words written...

(Do you know HOW MANY similar papers I have thrown away in the years since then that my other kids have written letters/words/their name on? Hundreds!)Now, this one IS quite interesting.....a drawing of his family, complete with me having a sword fight with Daddy while holding my little guy, Ryan, AND while being pregnant (notice the circle on my tummy) which Ryan apparently doesn't like, since he drew an "X" through it! Wow! What a talented lady I am! :)

And, THEN I saved four of the exact same pictures! FOUR! WHY? Because I was a gloating first-time parent.

Or maybe to show his progression with coloring.

FIRST, primarily all one-color, drab color choice rendition of dinosaur/butterfly/duck/gremlins scene. (Is there such a scene?)

SECOND, still mostly all one-color, but a more vibrant colored rendition of D/B/D/G.

THIRD, using a different color for many of the creatures of DBDG.

Fourth, using multi-colors on each of the creatures in the Why-didn't-I-even-pick-a-CUTE-scene-to-save?

I wonder what file drawer is housing all my other children's "masterpieces?"

Oh, I know...it's the Sanitary Landfill "file drawer."

And it made it's way there after being displayed on the fridge, closet, or back of the front door in our home for a couple weeks, then into the trash can, and then picked up by our trusty Sanitation Engineers.

Does this mean I don't love the others as much as the first? NO. I just realized now that there will be no shortage of pieces of artwork. And ONE a year is very sufficient to save- and it should be the very best one!

Because, let's face it. There just aren't enough file drawers.

And it's very embarrassing to see what I have hoarded cherished.

Things I also found in that drawer:

• MLS lists and house contracts from our last two houses we bought - in 1996 and 2001. (complete with Farmington houses For Sale at around $150,000! What a bargain!)
• receipts from some "Mystery Shopping" I did 10 or so years ago.
• University of Phoenix MBA program info/application that Matt had sent for/been interested in 10 years ago.
• Benefits package brochures and details from an old job Matt had 10+ yrs. ago.
• A "How to use the Internet" booklet from when we first got it about 12 years ago.
• 4 Gospel Art pictures that have been MIA for...ummm, let me guess, probably 10 years! (I'm very happy about this find!)

Pretty scary to think how long the very depths of that drawer have been neglected! :{

So, 2 hours later, I never did find any party invitations, but I have a cleaned out file drawer!