Contours

We have been living in our house for nearly eight years, which means seven summers of lawn mowing. We spent a good portion of these summers pushing trusty hand-me-down mower on our 1/3 acre property until I ran over something and broke it. So we bought another push mower, until we realized mowing the lawn took up too much time in addition to raising two little boys, so in entered the riding mower. Now I do all the mowing. I have recently noticed how over the years the contours of our yard have changed, partly due to an excavation project a number of years ago, but also due to the gradual change in the land. Dirt moves and settles, followed by rains, digging dogs and moles and the process repeats. There are areas that I can no longer take the riding mower for fear of toppling over, and that change has only occurred in a two year stretch of time.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I pulled out my prom dresses the other day. It’s been over 20 years (GULP!) since these were worn. I threw a bridesmaid dress into the mix for fun and I am glad I did. It is only about 12 years old and is the only item ever made custom made for me and it fit me perfectly back then. Guess what? Two babies since it still fit like it was made for my figure (thanks in part to the A-line cut). I was feeling pretty haughty when I went to try on the dress I wore as a junior in high school. It fit, but it was a little big on me, back then. And my how styles have changed since the late 1980s. So with great confidence I stepped into my royal blue prom dress with the asymmetrical cut that I wore as a high school sophomore, as my sons looked on. The shock must have shown on my face when I could not get the dress zipped up all the way. It came to my rib cage and just stopped. I sucked in and as I thought of asking my oldest son to pull the zipper up, I took one good yank and it was zipped. Of course I couldn’t breathe, but I was in it. The dress still made my legs look awesome, but it had lost a bit of the magic it once had. Maybe it was simply due to the lack of oxygen traveling to my brain. Who knew that ones rib cage could expand so much after childbirth? I paraded around in it for my sons, realizing that I would never try it on again. At least I got the fantasy of slipping into my prom dress out of my system and even feel ready to give it away to some very lucky high school drama department.

During the very same week my sons, 5 and 3 ½ were asking about how small they were as babies. I pulled out a preemie outfit, they had both worn as newborns, but that did not seem to make an impression, so my husband and I pulled out their baby photo albums. As we flipped through, it wasn’t how much the boys had changed so much as how much the parents had. When my oldest was born we looked so young. My husband’s grey hair was just starting, yet not recognized on film. We looked fairly relaxed , if not sleep deprived. Now, I notice the little lines on our faces, and the grey hairs are there. It’s all part of growing up and becoming a parent.

It all goes back to contours of the land. Nothing stays the same or looks the same forever. So I use my Oil of Olay (now just Olay) as I have since I was about twelve. That may be the only thing that has remained the same.