Today, You Are 5!

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are five. I know you think it was Saturday, or maybe Sunday. Sorry for the confusion. Anyway, it's today. wink emoticon

It's hard to believe you're finally five, which I know sounds cliche, but it really is. Not just because it seems like you were a baby five minutes ago and all that, or because your first four years were so crazy hard you made us question our parenting abilities....

... but because you still seem like our baby, which I guess is your lot in life and for that, I apologize.

You are going off to kindergarten in a few short days. I am crossing my fingers for this to be an entirely positive experience, and I think it mostly will be once we get started. Right now though, it's just hard to imagine you walking down that hall the first day all alone and being okay with that once you get to the other end and I'm not there. I didn't really worry about this part with your brothers. For some reason, they seemed older (I mean, they were a little... but not a LOT!) We'll see, I guess! Your teacher might get more than she has bargained for on that first day.... and possibly several days thereafter. (crossing my fingers)

At five, you are pretty much just a bigger version of who you were at all the other ages, just ever so slightly more reasonable. You are still the most stubborn, strong-willed child we've ever raised, for sure. You are adventurous and fearless in many respects, strangely fearful in others. You are a cuddler and a lover, but will turn around and punch your brothers with little provocation.

Yes, you have the advantage (?) of those two older brothers to show you the ways of the world/playground, so you sometimes seem older than you are; but then you throw yourself on the floor crying when they change the channel from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to Cartoon Network in the morning and I remember... you are actually still just a little guy in many ways.

You still ask me to lay in your bed and snuggle. You still ask for your ducky blankie when you're tired. You love a good story in my lap. You give out kisses liberally and hugs that knock people down if they aren't ready for them.

You love everything your brothers do, which includes Minecraft, Nerf dart guns, Star Wars, and sword fights. Independent of them though, you really do have your own set of likes! You love to help me bake, you love science experiments and reading, taking walks in your wagon and swinging. BOY do you love swinging. You could swing all day and all night. You especially love when I push you so high, you come up out of the seat. (I truly do not know whose child you are sometimes!) You've gotten really into your matchbox cars lately and carry two around in a little treasure box. And of course, you love your technology. You know your way around every electronic device in our house, sometimes better than we do.

You are one unique and super smart little guy and definitely keep us on our toes. I think this is pretty much always going to be true. Right now, I will just be thankful you are only five and that and no one will let you jump out of an airplane yet.

Happy birthday, J!

Love, Mommy

You Are 8!

Dear Simon,

You turned 8 on last Monday. It was a school day, but you happily went off to school excited to hear your name on the announcements and get your birthday pencil from the office.

You have grown up so much this year. You are amazingly mature, responsible, and self-confident! You are sweet and obedient, rarely complaining when we ask you to help or when things don't quite go ask planned. You're always the one to say, "Okay, sure!" or "That's okay."

You've embraced an identity as our family's "computer guy", and can run circles around Ben in this respect. ;) He defers to you on any computer question he has and always says, "I'm not really good at this kind of stuff, can you show me?" I know that makes you feel awesome!

You spend hours creating things on your laptop. Minecraft worlds, Scratch projects, animated pictures. Sometimes we'll be sitting somewhere and all the sudden you'll yell out, "Oh! I have an idea!" and run off to execute it.

You still love your Legos and when you don't have screen time, that's your favorite way to create. You can build anything and are always coming up with new ways to add on to your existing creations. Most recently you built (completely from your head) a helicopter that transformed into two other things!
I'm always amazed at what you come up with and how you stick with it until you figure out a way to build it!

You have made a wonderful little best friend this year, which makes me SO happy, and you two are peas in a pod. When you walk next to each other, you both just keep saying, "Dude…." "Dude?" "Dude…." followed by Minecraft, Pokemon, or Lego-speak. LOL. I love it!

You have become a good little student, continuing to progress with reading and writing by leaps and bounds. You always impress your teacher with your math thinking but perhaps most interesting is what a great speller you turned out to be. Almost every week you nail all 20 spelling words with little effort. Who knew?!

I'm happy to say we've found some books you'll pick up and read on your own. I love walking into your room at night and seeing you with you nose in a book! You love your Minecraft chapter books and the Harris Burdick book you got for your birthday.

You are such a great big brother to Jonathan, his best pal right now! You show him and teach him all kinds of things and he looks up to you like no one else. You two spend hours running around the house with towel capes and swords on adventures only you understand. :)

I'm enjoying watching you grow into this awesome, smart and self-assured big kid! Can't wait to see what this year brings!

Happy birthday Sime-a-doo!

Love, Mommy

Lately….

Not much happening this week. Finally back in our school groove after spring break. Jonathan had a tough week adjusting to that. LOL. Friday was, apparently, quite rough. He was sad on and off all day at school.

There was some excitement on Thursday when my parents got their puppy! It's a little poodle and the boys love it, but the biggest surprise was that SIMON loved it. And the puppy loved him back! It was a match made in heaven.  ;) We think it's the hair similarity. HA!

 nm,

   /

Friday was Tom's birthday. He came home from work a little early and we went out to a chinese place we hadn't been to in years. Jonathan, for whatever reason, was ALL out of sorts though and acted like a Nanny 911 child in the restaurant, so I ended up having to take him out to the car and sit with him in timeout while everyone finished eating. Not sure what gets into him sometimes. When we got home, he was himself again and ate his dinner happily and played outside.

Tom's big present this year was a trip to Philadelphia next weekend for just us! My parents are going to watch the boys for us and we are heading up Saturday morning and coming back Sunday late afternoon. He was pretty excited. It's literally the first time we will have left the kids overnight and gone somewhere (other than to the hospital to have another baby… LOL!)

Yesterday we had dinner at his parents' house. The boys had fun playing golf with Pap in the backyard all evening! Only got one photo, but it's a good one because it's of Ben, who is my hardest kid to get decadent photos of.

Today we are off to our niece's 4th birthday! (Have I mentioned it's family birthday season?) 

Ben is 11 Today!

Dear Ben,

Today you are 11 years old.

Instead of writing about milestones like sitting up, walking, and saying your first word, which is where we were on this day a decade (!?) ago, I am now writing about things like how you were blindsided by the puberty video at school two weeks ago. (not my fault, one of us forgot the permission slip. Hint: wasn't me!)

Firstly, I truly hope "the puberty video" has improved since I was in school. Secondly, I hope there is no lasting psychological scarring from that little surprise!

All joking aside, did I mention you are 11?  In five years you can drive! (prediction: you won't actually drive in five years… you are already worried about having to do this….)

At this age, you are suddenly all about friends. This has come as a surprise for me because for many years there, you could kind of take or leave most other kids. The only exceptions were the ones in our neighborhood, who, my heart is happy to say, are still wonderful friends. School friends were acquaintances, people to sometimes interact with AT school, but not much more. Now, suddenly, you crave people and want them around ALL the time.

After a couple years of encouraging you to "find your people",  I am happy to report you found a couple. You did a good job too! :)  I love watching you interact with your little friends  (who are actually not so little. Sujay's feet are like four sizes bigger than mine. I am realizing how full of "men" my house is going to be in the coming years. There is probably not enough Febreeze in the world…. but, I digress.)

Your favorite sports are still are basketball and swimming, although if anyone asks you right now, you say you hate swimming and want to quit. This isn't actually true… you're just worried about having to swim two lengths of butterfly this summer. I know this because you bring it up at least once a day, and that's on a good day. One a bad day, I might hear about your swimming angst about a dozen times.  Every start of swim season is rocky because of some new worry. Last year was the same. I wish we could fast-forward to the part where you are excited because that's way more fun. But such is life with an anxious kid.

You also love to write. Notebooks upon notebooks FILLED with stories, lists for stories, and outlines for stories and games you want to create. I'm kind of envious of how much you crank out, honestly. If we go somewhere, it's common to see you grab your notebook and favorite pen so you can write while we drive.

Currently, you also love all things Pokemon (again) and Ninjago (again) and science (always).

You've done an amazing job with the HUGE transition of switching schools midyear. You are thriving at your new school and look forward to going every day. I'm so proud of you for the courage you had to do that! I know it wasn't easy.

You are still the serious, contemplative kid you have been since the day you were born, always the straight man to your brothers' comedy duo.

I just got the rare opportunity to spend almost an entire week with just you around since you were on spring break by yourself. You've morphed into this neat "big kid", who is really fun to hang out and go places with.  :)

I love the person you are and the person you are becoming!

Happy birthday, B!

Love, Mom

Happy XIth!

We celebrated Ben's 11th birthday yesterday with Tom's side of the family! It was a quick and harried gathering, but the kids had a blast nonetheless. Ben had picked out cupcakes from Graul's. On the way out, he and I spotted these cool roman numeral candles and both agreed they were a must have. ;)  

His favorite birthday gift thusfar, no joke, a set of a dozen flare pens from Aunt Krystyna and Uncle Marc. I had told Krystyna he really wanted them, and that truly they would be a great and easy standalone gift. I know she didn't believe me. They also got him a cool Rubik's cube variation with a crazy number of sides, which he also loves... but he really would have been thrilled with just the pens. He HUGGED them when he opened them. LOL! 

What can I say? He loves pens!  I was actually considering for one of his gifts from us just raiding the pen aisle at Office Depot and filling a basket with different kinds. Flare pens, in particular, are his favorite though.  And until now, he hasn't actually owned any of his own, just pilfered them from school and other places. ;)

This is how he blew out his XI.  So much for the awesome candle blowing picture I always put on the photo calendar. Going to have to try again tomorrow or Sunday when we celebrate with my family! 

Birthday Sleepover Success!

Well, we survived our first foray into little boy sleepovers!

The kids had a blast. They played a ton of Wii, watched Pokemon movies, played laser tag, and ate a shameful amount of junk food. They say they were up until about 1:30, although they were pretty quiet after about 11. 

In an attempt to keep the little ones out of their hair (because they wanted to be RIGHT in the middle of it all), we set up a mini sleepover in Simon's room and hooked up a little tv to the x-box up there. They had their own popcorn and glowsticks. They were (mostly) content…. it took some convincing that their setup was as cool as Ben's. 

Ben's two little friends, Sujay and Tommy, are such nice kids.  I like them a lot! They've been over separately, but never together. It's a great little trio.  I fed them a pancake breakfast this morning and Tom just left to take them all home. They were still chattering about Pokemon.  

Now… to air out the junior frat house basement. LOL.   

Now You Are Four....

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are four!

Between the sleepless nights of 0-1, the "how many ways can I hurt myself?" phase of 1-2, the knock down, drag out tantrums of 2-3, and the "I will only drink from blue cups with lids and eat only pasta!" pickiness of 3-4,  sometimes it truly felt like this day would never come.

It's not that all those other ages didn't have their positives....because they did....and there are things I will miss about each of them, especially since you are our last baby. It's just that, it seemed like four was when your brothers,  particularly your oldest one, who was our toughest model until you came along, became much more rational human beings, capable of being reasoned with.

Oddly, last night at your birthday party, you sort of morphed into this weirdly polite little person who was nice to your cousins, said thank you for presents, and said hello and goodbye to everyone without whining, scowling or burying your head in the floor for no apparent reason. So I'm starting to think there is something to this magical age.

At any rate.... so.... FOUR.

In many ways, you are such an OLD four. Four going on seven... or ten. I hang my head in shame when you talk endlessly to other preschoolers about Minecraft and Clash of Clans. Most of them, especially the firstborns, look at you like you have a dozen heads and go back to building Lego towers or talking superheroes.  At the pool this summer, you hung out with Ben and Simon's friends when they would all go off to play Minecraft on their iPads. You fit right in and they never complained that you tagged along. They just adopted you as one of the big kids. One of your best friends at the pool is a little boy named Carter, who is Simon's age. Every day Carter would show up and say to me, "Where's Jonathan?" I'd point him in your direction and he'd run over and high five you and spend hours trying to teach you to swim or playing Minecraft with you under the awning. You would tell me "Carter's here! Carter loves me! He loves me because I'm CUTE."

In other ways, you are the youngest-seeming four I have ever had. First off, this August birthday makes you the youngest in your class. But there are other things too....you are dragging out this potty training thing as long as possible, for instance.  You aren't usually able to just "go play" with other kids your age, which makes playdates tough... you are also still unhappy about school and I'm interested/worried to see how this year's start goes. (I hope better than last year. It HAS to be better than last year.....)
I keep reminding myself you are almost half a year younger than Ben was when he started school every year. And, in many cases, you are even more significantly younger than some of your classmates. You have some natural social weaknesses anyway, so this age gap, as far as school is concerned, feels enormous at times.

You are my snuggle bug. During quiet afternoons when your brothers aren't around (and even sometimes when they are), you will announce that you need some quiet time "on the couch with binky and ducky". You'll curl up next to me and, if I'm really lucky, ask to read some books and we'll pick a whole pile to go through together all in one sitting. You LOVE your books... all kinds... but especially the Pigeon series, the How Do Dinosaurs series, and this blatant ripoff of the Hungry Caterpillar one that we have called Hungry Bunny.  You can read anything and everything, but you still prefer to be read to, which I love.

Somehow, you are simultaneously our most affectionate child and our meanest. You can go from hugs and kisses and "I love yous" to biting and hitting and kicking in the blink of an eye. There is NO in between with you. I do hope, now that you are this magical age, we start seeing more of nice Jonathan and less of vicious untrained puppy Jonathan.

You are still our fearless one. Our recent trip to Dutch Wonderland confirmed that. You are solidly in the "the higher and faster, the better!" camp. I am both terrified and excited to see what you will do in life without fear to hold you back.  If I had to pick one of my three children who was most likely to jump from an airplane or hang-glide off a cliff? There is zero question. It's you.

No doubt about it. You are challenging in many ways, my little friend. You keep us on our toes and things are rarely easy as far as you are concerned. You are certainly our ball of fire.... but with that, you bring so much light, life and energy to our family. You drive us all completely crazy sometimes, but I know I speak for daddy and big brothers too when I say we love you to pieces and wouldn't change you for anything.

Happy 4th Birthday, J, Jonathan, Jellybean...

Love,
Mommy

I'll Start Here and Work My Way Back.... Happy 7th Birthday to Simon!

Simon's Minecraft birthday party!

A few kids from his class at school, a neighborhood friend, some friends from our old neighborhood, and some cousins and brothers = great crowd for another Gametruck party!

The kids had a blast and I am officially done with birthdays for a little while. (well, until August...)

Aunt Krystyna makes the coolest cakes!  (although don't ask her to make this exact one...  apparently it was a little tedious...) ;)   Please note the little "Simon" Steve.

Ben is 10!!

Dear Ben,

Today is has been a whole decade since we first met you. TEN YEARS! If I sit quietly and think (not that I ever get that chance around here!)  I can bring back every feeling and thought from that morning your daddy and I walked into the hospital and waited for you to be born.  Nervous, excited....realizing there was NO turning back.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into with this parenting thing. And like everyone always says, it has turned out to be way harder than we ever imagined, but also the most amazing and awesome thing ever ... and you started it all.  This is probably a good thing because you broke us in well. You still hold the honor being our most challenging baby and toddler, yes EVEN compared to Jonathan. (you love hearing those stories too...) 

You have come into your own this year and seem to really have a good grasp on who you are. Fourth grade has been your best year yet as far as friends and school. You are happier and less afraid to try new things than you used to be. Swimming and basketball have helped to give you so much confidence. You still don't much like being the "short kid", but you seem to have slowly begun to embrace it as part of your identity.

You want to dress and wear your hair a certain way now, and you care how you look, which is cute. You announced at your last haircut that you didn't want them to cut it too short because you'd like to start wearing it longer now. Your clothes are an assortment of Under Amour and UA knockoffs from Target and Old Navy in all sorts of blinding fluorescents. Perhaps my favorite touch are the brightly colored socks pulled up to your kneecaps, a look you have picked up from your friends. It's cute though... and you'll get some good laughs out of the photos in about 20 years. ;)

You are an amazing big brother to Simon and Jonathan, though they don't always make your life easy. I admire that so much about you. You have an amazing knack for patiently and lovingly dealing with and communicating with all children younger than you. Every little kid we meet seems to worship the ground you walk on.  It makes me smile.

Perhaps my most favorite thing about you is that you are kind. I've never actually seen you be mean to anyone (though I'm sure there are things I haven't seen) and you seem to accept everyone the way they are.  You are deeply hurt when other kids are mean and still don't seem to understand why they are like that (neither do I, really). I'm glad you at least understand now when it is happening, because you didn't used to. Now you know who the mean kids are and are learning to defend yourself with words or just walk away. I hate that you had to even learn that lesson; but it's a good one, nonetheless.

I ask you what you want to be when you grow up and it ranges from engineer to writer. And I have a feeling whatever you do will somehow encompass things from both worlds. You love facts and breaking things down, just like your daddy. You also love to fill notebooks with words, just like mommy. You write all kinds of stories and create entire worlds.... and yet, they are full of facts and list and statistics. Whatever you do, it will certainly be interesting to watch it as it comes to light. 

You are becoming such a neat little person. Sometimes I feel like you are SUCH an old soul and know way more than I do... that you just quietly tolerate listening to my thoughts on things. LOL.  I think this might be my most favorite age so far. I love talking to you and hearing what goes on inside that brain of yours. 

I am so excited to see what your future holds and I love you so very much! Happy 10th birthday, Thomas Benjamin!

Love,

Mommy 

Birthday Season is Upon Us....

First up, Ben.... (well, technically, me... but I like to keep it low-key and it's not up to me to plan what to do anyway) ;)

So this year, we found this thing called Party Game Truck. I actually found this last year, but we did the rock climbing thing, and decided to save this idea.  So they come park this 20-foot trailer in the driveway and inside are 16 big-screen tvs with any games you want and a "game coach" who I guess manages the chaos.  Sounds easy and fun and Ben was excited about it. Ten seemed like a good age for something like this too.

They let you have 16 kids in the truck (larger groups can rotate, but we didn't want to have to do that). I didn't mention this to Ben and just told him to make a list of who he would want to invite. Low and behold,, his list, including himself and and Simon was exactly 16 kids. Hrm. About eight more than I actually wanted to have... but the list was all kids I know -- ALL super nice kids who have all consistently been friends with Ben since he switched schools. I couldn't say no to any of them.... SOOOOo we invited them all. I don't want any of them to not come because like I said, I do like each and every one of them. But I would definitely not be sad if a handful of them have baseball practice or lacrosse or a family trip planned or something and can't make it. ;) Ten would be a nice number to ultimately end up with.

The plan is that they arrive, play in the truck for two hours and then, in what I am dubbing the hour of insanity, get released for pizza, cake and unstructured activities. Read: This is when I somehow have to keep 16 boys from destroying our house until their parents come get them.

I hope and pray it is warmish and sunny that day and I can just keep them outside. Tom can play wiffleball and basketball with them and they can go all the crazy they want. If I have to have them in my house, I don't know WHAT I'll do except herd them down to the basement and hope for the best.

So far two RSVPs and they are both yes.... the last two times we've done parties for Ben he hasn't had a single no.... (I suspect it's because his birthday falls during kind of a lull between sports and holidays.....) including the year we invited the entire class to Ultimate PLayzone. All 25 kids came. GAH!

Wish me luck........

You Are Three!

Okay, a little late.. but here's the monthday/birthday picture. Post coming soon!

Today You Are Six!

Dear Simon,

Today you are six.

This year, your birthday falls right before Mother's Day again just like the year you were born. I remember waking up in the hospital on Mother's Day and just being in awe of being a mom for the second time.

You are my little comedian, always looking for the laugh, the comic foil to your older brother's straight man act. You have a contagious enthusiasm for absolutely everything, even the incredibly mundane.

Bagels for breakfast?  "YAY!!! Thanks, Mommy!!" 

With butter and cinnamon sugar? "It's a party!!!"

You can have an extra five minutes of computer time today! "Oh boy!!!!"

Your favorite jammies are clean! "Awesome! Is it bedtime yet?!"

You started kindergarten in the fall. We've had our ups and downs with it. You've loved it and hated it and everything in between. You've skipped into the school doors in the mornings and I've also had to drag you in and leave you crying with your teacher. The thing about you is that you have a tendency to get upset and seem angry when you are anxious about a situation or aren't sure of something, and parts of kindergarten have shaken your confidence a bit, which was a first for you, I think. 

You've grown so much though! Just in the last month, your reading has started to take off. Your pile of sight words that used to be so painful for both of us, you can now rattle off in a minute and a half. You are starting to really GET reading and writing and it has changed your outlook drastically. The transformation has been awesome to witness. 

Your biggest loves these days are Star Wars, Minecraft and Legos and all combinations thereof. You still love those Legos with a passion. You spend so many hours building and talking to yourself on the floor of your bedroom. As much as it pains me, I've given up on the piles that are constantly on the floor. Those little bricks and Lego people bring you so much joy. 

You are not much of an outdoorsy kid, though you do love to dress up in a Jedi robe and run around the yard with a light saber fighting imaginary battles. Sports aren't your thing... at least not yet. You do love our climbing gym and will show off your hanging upside down trick to anyone who will watch.

You have always been my artist. You love to create in any form and love to give people what you've made. We got you your own little box of "office supplies" for Christmas and you went bananas for it. You'll often disappear up to your "desk" (the top of a toy box) and draw a dozen pictures to be hung around the house or given away. You love to paint too. When we get the paints out at home, you're always the last one left at the table. Every day you bring home pictures you've drawn or painted at school (I thnk you must ALWAYS choose drawing during free centers!!) and you get so offended if you find any of them in the recycling bin. I explain I can't keep them all  (because it's a LOT)  and I make sure to hang the ones you seem really proud of on the refrigerator. :) Really special ones get tucked away. 

You are incredibly sensitive and loving. You think of other people often and you are always an eager helper. You are so generous with your affection, always ready with a hug or kiss for someone who needs it. Two of the little friends you have made at school this year are a lot like you and it's funny because you all like to hold hands and hug and kiss each other at the end of the day. LOL!

You are my only child who will willingly pose for a picture and actually, you are constantly asking me to take your picture or get something you are doing on video. I should do it more often than I do, simply because you make it so easy!

It was hard to decide what to do for your birthday this year. We started out planning a kids' party, but then decided that wasn't such a great fit right now. You seem to enjoy small, quiet events and get overwhelmed easily by too much going on. I think we came up with the perfect plan. We are taking you to the Lego store to pick out a new set and then we're going to Medieval Times to watch the show and have dinner. We got the birthday package so they'll announce your name and give us cake, which I just KNOW you are going to think is AWESOME. :)

Can't wait to celebrate!

Happy 6th birthday, sweet boy!

Love,

Mommy :)

Birthday #2...

Simon has decided he does not want an Earth Treks party after all, which I'm thrilled about because I was having panic attacks thinking about how I was going to corral 14 5-year-olds there since the majority of parents would probably drop off.  He's also kind of having some friend issues at school, and had planned to invite every boy in the class, which I was starting to think was maybe not such a great idea since apparently he doesn't actually like or play with some of them.

Anyway, so now I am scrambling to come up with a Plan B. He has asked for Kiddie Crusoe, but I'm pushing for a family barbecue with rented crazy huge moonbounce, which I think is really more Simon's speed these days.

So we'll see where that goes.

More later. The last few days have been crazy busy. So glad to be back in our routine again with school and whatnot. Whew!

Today You Are Nine....

Dear Ben,

Today you turn nine years old. I know I say it every year, but... how did that happen? Sigh.

This year, you have changed and grown so much as a person -- probably more than any year before.
First and foremost, you have a confidence and self-assurance you haven't had before. You seem to have hit your groove with who you are and what you like and don't like. And, just as importantly, you seem to have found some real friends who share your interests.

You've learned the hard way this past year that not everyone is your friend. It wasn't easy, but that's a good lesson to learn early and it seemed to help you more easily recognize those people who really ARE your friends. I hope you continue to nurture these friendships the next couple years at school so that no matter where you all end up in sixth grade, you still keep in touch and spend time together.

I think basketball has helped you with your confidence a lot. Not only did it help really get a couple of those great little friendships off the ground for you, since you have had a couple of the same kids from your class on your team for three years now, but also you can hold your own on the court and you've earned the respect and camaraderie of the other boys. I am so glad you have found something you love and are good at!

You are still not school's biggest fan, but you don't complain anymore and you are doing well. I'm very proud of HOW well you do, considering what a monumental a struggle it is for you to keep your papers together, find everything you need, and stay on task in your classes. You manage though, with help from some amazingly patient and understanding teachers. I think you'll look back on this year someday and realize that they were the some of the good ones who made you start to like school (in your own way) again. I love that.

It's nice to see you smile in the mornings now when I drop you off and watch you catch up with and talk to friends on the way in. Finally, school is a positive thing again... I hope you can continue to ignore those smarty-pants little girls who try to make you feel less-than or not as smart as they are. Those types will appear over and over again in your life... and they may very well have genius IQs and they may remember their homework all the time and have neat desks and get all the right answers. But you know what? Most of them aren't as kind as you are. So in end, if you are kind to people and treat others the way you want to be treated, you win. I promise... you win.  I wouldn't trade any amount of your kindness,  sensitivity, and open heart for their organization and perfect grades.

Another confidence-builder has been swimming. In one year, you went from being too afraid to go under the water, to being able to swim the entire length of the pool and back. You are kind of a natural little swimmer and you are super-crazy-fast! I hope you keep it up!

You are really into Legos (Star Wars and Ninjago... once again...) and Minecraft right now and those things dominate your free time. You've started sorting our ridiculous collection of Legos out and rebuilding all the little Star Wars and Ninjago guys. You also love riding your bike and shooting baskets in the driveway. You sleep with stuffed animals and just the other night, I came in to turn off your light and you were snuggled up with your froggie blanket from when you were a baby.   I love that you are still such a little boy... not trying to be older than you are.  I want things to stay like that for as long as possible.

You are still my little rule follower and would rather have the earth open up and swallow you whole rather than be yelled by anyone at or get into trouble. You and I get along well and have struck a balance of respect and friendship...  you and daddy butt heads sometimes.  You are his little sports buddy though and you share a lot of the same interests.  I think all of these things will probably always be this way.

You love your brothers, though Simon is at the age where he gets on your nerves a LOT. For the most part though, he is your best friend, though you are as different as night and day.  You are still REALLY patient and loving with Jonathan. It has been fun watching those relationships grow and evolve.

Like I said before, you are kind and sensitive and it's one of my favorite things about you. You are never mean, (except to Simon sometimes.) You accept everyone and will play with anyone and take for granted that everyone else is the same way. This can get you into trouble with kids who take advantage of that, but it also means that the nice ones are drawn to you.

You are still as serious as the day you were born, but you have developed a dry sense of humor that sometimes catches us off guard and always makes us laugh.

I just can't wait to see what the next few years bring as you continue to come into your own and get more and more confident in who you are. I love all that you already are and all that you are becoming...

Happy 9th Birthday!

Love,
Mommy :)

Driving Me Up a Wall...

Ben's party was SO much fun. The people at EarthTreks are amazing with the kids and did a fantastic job. Easiest birthday party I've ever thrown. (and SO much quieter than the bouncy places... OMG)

The kids had a blast. We ended up having eleven guests plus Ben and Simon... we lost a couple to a stomach virus that morning, sadly. It was nice that this year, Ben chose his favorite friends instead of just "the entire class". It was clear the kids who came wanted to be there and really liked him. :) That was nice to see.

The group ate 36 bags of Gushers in 30 minutes. I paid for that later when we went out to dinner and Ben and Simon literally were out of their minds with sugar. I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm sure it didn't help that they got into the goodie bags on the way back and ate rock candy and pop rocks without me realizing it. So yeah... sugar high to the max.  Yikes.

The employees at ET were so good with the kids. They made them feel safe (we didn't have a single kid not try to climb). They were really fun and energetic and they played awesome games with them.

Good thing we liked it because Simon has an identical party booked for HIS birthday. LOL.

Anyway, here are few pics. Videos coming soon after I extract them from my phone. :)

T Minus Six Days....

I have now heard from all but two of Ben's party invitees.

One mom, I'm told, I will never hear from and the kid will probably just show up anyway, possibly on time, possibly not... maybe on the right day... maybe not. I really enjoy the element of surprise there. That's fun.

The other kid whose mom I haven't heard from told Ben at school that he'll be there.  What parent relies on their third-grader to relay this kind of information? This is a foreign concept for me? At any rate, we're calling that one a yes.

Anyway though, so they are ALL coming. Again. Second year in a row.

And for the second year in a row, I'm surprised. It's lacrosse season and a TON of these kids play on Saturdays; but, apparently we throw the best parties ever. LOL!

Next year I'll just count on all yes's from the start.

Ben's thrilled though and I'm excited to have all his "people" in the same place so I can observe. At least we didn't invite the entire class this year! It will only be 16 kids instead of 25. Whew!  But then again.. all boys! You should probably say a little prayer for me.

432 Months Old....

So today I am 432 months old. I know, time flies right?

When I started this blog, I was only 316 months old!

Back then, I never thought I'd drive a minivan. I drove a silver VW Jetta and it was AWESOME. I only had one child and he was still in utero. He was never going to eat candy, especially not pixie sticks, or play video games where you have to shoot things. He was also going to be a girl named Maddy.

Oops.

Back then, I also had an actual, paying job. I'm not sure how I kept said job, seeing as how, toward the end of my tenure, I mostly just worked on this blog, (which way back in the day, was called "I Have to Push What out of Where?") while simultaneously obsessively googling questions about pregnancy and childbirth.

HA!

A decade later, I'm an unemployed,  professional soccer-mom Honda Odyssey taxi driver. It's very possible that, in a pinch, I could safely deliver your baby in an elevator just with the sheer amount of information my ocd has driven me to acquire over ten years and three pregnancies. Yes, I have tripled my number of offspring, and they are, in fact, all boys. Maddy never came. Those boys play all kinds of crazy video games and eat more than their fair share of candy --  although pixie sticks are still off limits.  Basically, the only thing that has stayed consistent in the last ten years is this blog... and my haircut.

Anyway, so a lot of months have passed.

I'm not sure what milestones a 432-month-old should be expected to have hit, but here are some of the things I have learned this past 12 months on the earth.

* First and foremost,  I've narrowed down the meaning of life to the following -- We are put on this earth to connect with and take care of others using the gifts God gave us. If one of those gifts is that you can make people laugh and encourage them through goofy statuses on Facebook every morning while they drink their coffee, then run with that.

* You really can make a difference in the world one person at a time, one interaction at a time. I used to feel like making a difference was an overwhelming concept and wondered how anything I could do could possibly leave any kind of lasting impact on the world. I don't feel that way anymore. I really believe the biggest impacts are made by the ripple effect of people being kind to people they come into contact with. Pay it forward, and all that...

* Take risks and put yourself out there. Pursue people you think are interesting.  You just might find a new friend in an unlikely place. You also might be a giant pain in the ass; BUT you'll never know unless you try.

* This one kind of goes hand in hand with the previous one : Making snap judgements about people is a good way to miss out on a person who might be nice to know. I consider myself a pretty intuitive person... a people reader.  But sometimes, I'll admit, I pass judgement on someone for one dumb thing they said or did, thinking I could never hang out with them or be friends with them for one stupid reason or another... mostly due to my own issues... and then I get to know them later on and find out they are wonderful people. I have had to learn this lesson over and over and over again. One day, maybe I'll remember it.

* Don't worry quite so much about what other people think. This is a constant struggle for me. But I keep learning over and over again that if I'm honest, genuine and kind, it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. True friends will emerge. Haters always gonna hate, so to speak.

* My sense of justice will never be satiated, so I should stop hoping it will. It's also what gets me in trouble a lot because I can't stop running my mouth when I feel like I or someone I know has been wronged. There are always going to be nasty, hateful people in this world. There will always be little poops who are going to be mean to my kids. There will always be people who are going to judge me or my family.  There will always be spiteful and jealous people out there. And there will ALWAYS be that idiot in the sports car who is going pass me going 80mph on Dulaney Valley Road... (wth?!)  It's just the way the world is and I can't fix it and can't change it. I can only control how I react to it and try to cancel it out by putting as much goodness, kindness, patience, and positivity out there as I can muster.

* I'm never going to like flying. No matter how many times I do or how much I learn about the physics and mechanics of it,  I'm pretty sure I will never be able to wrap my head around or enjoy the idea of flying 500mph 30,000 feet off the ground in a metal tube. But I WILL face my fear again, get on that airplane in August and have a good time with my kids in Disney. Even if it kills me ... which it could because OMG planes crash sometimes, ya'll.

* Re: the above... Embrace your quirks and your fears and the stuff that makes you different from everyone else. Don't hide it and pretend it's not there. All that weird stuff is what makes you special. Everyone has their own collection of weirdness and you can make other people feel better by letting your own weirdness shine. ;)

* It's no joke --  time really does fly.

* Kneecaps sag with age. I once read in a Redbook magazine that your best kneecap years are between like 18-24... after that it's all downhill. This year, I noticed kneecap sag. So yeah, it's true.

And lastly, in the last 12 months:
* I learned how to make really awesome iced cookies. Finally! It only took 36 years. ;)


There are probably more... but those are the biggies ones off the top of my head.

P.S. Here's my 348-months-old post... yes, I ripped off my own joke. Also? Apparently not much has changed in my life... and I still have the same haircut. ;)

Birthday Countdown...

Ten days until Ben turns 9!

He reminds me every. single. morning. how many more days, followed by how many more days until his party and what he wants for his birthday.

Then Simon wants to start talking about his party (in May!)  and birthday list and then they argue about it. I end up just yelling at both of them to just STOP talking already because it's too way too early in the day go brush your teeth and comb your hair and WHY in the heck are you arguing about what's on each other's birthday lists?!  It's like they are pre-fighting over things they don't even own. GAH!

Anyway, yeah... I'm currently in the same boat I was last year. One day till the rsvp deadline and only three kids' parents have bothered to call or email me to rsvp. I make it easy, people... you don't even have to pick up the phone. Just send me an email!!!

Tomorrow, I guess I'll send out the "Hey... I know you're busy but did you by any chance get Ben's birthday invitation?" email. I even sent the invites by mail this year so I didn't have to sit around wondering if Ben actually handed them out to everyone or if he just shoved them into the bottom of his locker with all of his gloves, hats, etc.

Someone remind me of this though next time I leave some other kid's birthday invite pinned to the bulletin board, waiting until the last minute to rsvp, because yeah, I'm totally hypocritical about this... I don't know what it is, but I can't bring myself to respond usually until the rsvp date on the invite. LOL.

The Party So Nice, We'll Do it Twice!

I sure hope we like this EarthTreks birthday party Ben is having... because Simon is having an identical one in May. LOL! That's what he wanted...  well, I guess I'll be buying goodie bag stuffers in bulk!

Rock On...

I was working on goody bag ideas for Ben's rock climbing birthday party (9! He'll be 9!!!)  next month and I was telling him some of my thoughts:

Me: So I was thinking maybe rock candy, pop rocks, and chocolate candy that looks just like rocks... cool, huh? 

Silence....

Me: Ben...Get it? Rocks? Rock climbing?

Ben: (dead seriously) But I'm not into geology right now.

Me: Well, yeah but it's a ROCK-climbing party...

Ben: Yeah, but I'm not into actual ROCKS. That's geology.

Me: You know what, just nevermind. Go back to Minecraft.

Sheesh. Tough crowd.