I was reminded of this story the other day while looking at pictures of my grandson in Florida.
He looked so much bigger, and that was confirmed when I saw another picture of him with his father. I knew his father’s size and could kind of equate my grandson’s size based on his father.
When you live far from grandchildren, it’s sometimes hard to have a way to put their growth into perspective.
When my first child was born, we got a large Daffy Duck doll and started taking pictures of her with that doll. It helped grandparents and other relatives see how much she was growing.
When my brother and sisters were growing up, Dad came up with his way of measuring our growth on an annual basis.
He would have us stand next to the door frame going into the garage and then he would use a pencil and place a mark above our head.
Then, he would write our age and the date.
Over the years, each of us could see those marks and not only measure our growth, but see how our siblings were growing.
I know we weren’t the only family using such a system.
That door frame became a valuable piece of our family history … and when my parents sold that house …well, the new owners had to wonder: What happened to one strip of the door frame leading to the garage?