Just about everyone I know has a place in their home that marks the height of their children. Ours happens to be on the refrigerator. I started the markings when Dillon was turning 5. For his birthday we wanted to take him to a rock climbing wall in a local store, but he had to be a certain height in order to do it. So I lined him up with the refrigerator, marked it, and measured. Unfortunately he was too short to do the climb, but it started a little family growth chart.
This past week was Avery's birthday, and it has become the tradition to mark all the kid's heights when a birthday rolls around. Dillon stood tall at 51". Bailey came in at 44", and Avery, who only has 2 markings so far, is now 28 1/2" tall. It is always exciting to see how much they have grown since the last markings.
All this is coming about because our refrigerator died on Saturday. A house full of company, and the refrigerator decides that this would be a good time to quit. Great. Besides worrying about the cost of a replacement, I didn't think too much more about the consequences of getting a new one. Sure I would need to figure out where to put the eggs, drinks, cheese, etc.. How different can a refrigerator be, right? I totally forgot about the markings.
Then last night I started thinking. Then I started to panic. How am I going to save this little piece of history? We are not keeping this one, even though the freezer is working, and I could use a second freezer, because it would waste energy trying to keep the refrig part cool. So that was not an option. I pulled out a piece of paper and a measuring tape, thinking I would have to measure all the marks from 3 years, record them on paper so I could transfer them to the new refrig. Then my brother in law said "Why don't you use a piece of tape? Line it up with the refrig door. Copy the markings, and then it's an easy transfer to the new one or the wall." Perfect! I did that using different color markers for each kid and then put the tape up on the wall. I can decide later if I want to keep it on the wall or transfer it to the new refrig.
I also began to realize how many other pieces of history were displayed up there. There are stickers from the package my mom used to mail Dillon's presents on his 1st birthday. There is artwork from when Dillon was really young, maybe 2. There are family pictures covering 8 years. Magnets from all the places that I have traveled, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Vermont, New Jersey, NJ, NJ, NJ... School work, phone numbers, contact information for babysitters, menus, shopping lists... on and on. It was overwhelming.
A new start with a new refrig. Do I put up all that stuff again, or let it begin its journey starting now?
3 comments:
This was a cool post, yo.
wow --- who knew a frig could be become so much a part of the family. Hope you get a really great new one(if there is such a thing) to make up for some of this grief.
great thoughts t! we don't have a chart listed on ours yet but it does have a life of it's own. we keep adding photos, ticket stubs, an entire smorgasborg of things - it takes on a life of it's own. is there ANY way that you can rip the door off the old fridge and use it as wall art? it's a thought! have fun with the new family member - mr. fridge.
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