Aidan is 11!

Happy 11th birthday to my biggest boy! We've got a LOT of changes and transitions happening in our family right now, not the least of which is us moving (our last night in the only house he's ever know is on his birthday!) and starting 6th grade in August at a brand new school without any of the friends he knows from elementary school. But I'm proud to say that Aidan is handling everything like a champ so far, and setting a great example for his brother and sister like always. I love this handsome fella with all of my heart!



And now I'm going to start what I hope will be a nice new birthday tradition: an interview with the birthday boy. I think it'll be cool to look back on his answers to see how they change over the years. Makes me wish I'd started it sooner! Though I will say that he's certainly not long-winded like his mom...:) I had to dig for a few more details here and there.

• How old are you?   11
• What is your favorite color?    Sky blue
• What is your favorite book?    Divergent
• What is your favorite food?    Pizza
• Who is your best friend?    Will
• What is your happiest memory?    Going to Great Wolf Lodge with my family
• Why do you like being a kid?    Because I can have fun
• What is one word to describe yourself?    Awesome
• If you could be any animal, which one would you be?    A Lion
• What’s your favorite thing about school?    Reading
• What makes you laugh?    My brother
• What do you want to be when you grow up?    A Businessman
• What do you love most about your brother and sister?    They are awesome
• What is your favorite thing to do with your family?    Watch TV
• What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now?    Working
• What advice would you give your parents?    Do your best!

Mom's note: we certainly don't spend all of our time watching TV, but we've found some family shows we like watching on the weekend (The Amazing Race and Once Upon a Time are two that we really like).

It's still summer

Gotta be honest—all this talk of it now being fall kind of makes me mad.

I know Labor Day is supposed to signify the end of summer, but it's an unofficial end—one that I refuse to accept. While I don't hate fall by any means, I'm not eager to welcome any sort of cold weather. At all. After the winter we had last year, I can't imagine many people would blame me. ☺

So I'm hanging on to every official day of summer, right up until September 23. And every warm day after that, for that matter!













Pictures are from Aidan and Lorelai's birthday pool party. I could really use a LOT more days like that one. Perfect summer weather.

2nd and 5th

We're about a month in to Logan's 2nd grade year and Aidan's 5th grade year, and so far so good!



I did end up meeting Logan's teacher and she seems really great. Very communicative with the parents and enthusiastic. I love the program she's using for classroom behavior (ClassDojo) because I can see throughout the day exactly how Logan is doing. What's also kind of cool is that Logan's 2nd grade classroom is the classroom I was in for 2nd grade many years ago. :)


Happy about school, mad about the camera in his face :)

And it turns out Aidan did have a friend in his class from last year, we must have just missed him on the roster during open house. Regardless, he's easily made more friends like I knew he would. And he loves the setup they have now in 5th grade where his class is paired with another class and they swap teachers for different subject areas. One does Social Studies/ELA and the other does Math/Science. He likes both teachers and is doing well with his testing so far.


Aidan started off the morning with no sling because his arm was feeling much better, but worried about the bus and worried people would bump into him, so he ended up wearing for the first couple days of school. He's been sling-free ever since.



After what seemed like a bad start to the year, things are really looking up and I couldn't be happier.



PS: 90% of the pictures I took with my good camera ended up completely blurry and unusable, and I'm so mad I don't have a head to toe pic of Aidan for his end of the year side-by-side. GRRRRR! At least I thought to also take a couple of pics with my phone, otherwise I wouldn't have a single picture of the kids together.

A double digit birthday

Happy birthday to my very favorite 10-year-old! It just blows my mind how we're already into double digits.



At 10, Aidan LOVES to read. His current obsession is Harry Potter and anything Rick Riordan. When he's not reading, in his spare time he likes to swim, play soccer, watch TV or play video games. That's why we have limits on the amount of non-educational technology he has access to for the week. :)

And he's still so friendly and outgoing. I so love that he can make friends easily and isn't hampered by shyness like I am/was. He came home from the first day of school already talking about his new friends. But Logan is still his best friend. Logan and Lorelai are so lucky to have a brother like Aidan.



Every year it never fails―I get emotional thinking about when he was born. In that moment, I couldn't have hoped for a better person to call my son, and he never ceases to amaze me. At 2:06 pm today at work, I looked at the clock and remembered the overwhelming feeling I felt that same moment exactly 10 years ago.



"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." ― Dr. Seuss

I've always loved that Dr. Suess book. And I love every bit of this simply amazing boy who's growing up right before my eyes. While I miss the little baby he used to be, I can't help but be excited to know the great man he's going to become.

"Kid, you'll move mountains!"



Love you so much, buddy.

Fractured

Well I guess it was bound to happen at some point and maybe with three kids I'm lucky it took this long--we have our first broken bone.



Poor Aidan was playing soccer at his summer day camp when someone slide tackled him and he fell. When it was clear that this wasn't some bruise that would feel better with some ice, I took him to an orthopedic urgent care (how handy!) and they determined that he had an upper radial head fracture.

The radial "head" is the knobby end of the radius where it meets the elbow. (via)

 

Thankfully, the doctor said he doesn't like to cast unless absolutely necessary with this type of fracture. So as long as a sling can keep his arm supported and his elbow from moving, he should heal properly without a bulky over-the-elbow cast to completely ruin what's left of his summer break.

We go back for a follow-up x-ray next week and hopefully his bone will be on the mend. I do expect that he'll have to wear the sling for at least 2 weeks, so he may go back to school sporting an extra cool accessory. Eh, it's just a sign of his battle wound so I don't think he really minds. :)

I guess in the grand scheme of things, we lucked out. It's his non-dominant hand, no bones sticking out, no cast, and as long as he doesn't move it, it doesn't hurt. He just has to learn how to do everything one-handed for a while. And both Logan and Lorelai have been more than happy to lend him an extra hand (Lorelai put on Aidan's socks this morning) when he needs it. Awwww!

We just really hope he's well enough by his birthday at the end of the month to actually go in the pool at his own pool party. Fingers crossed...

End of 1st and 4th...Summer Break begins

Aidan and Logan had their last day of 1st and 4th grade on Friday.



Thankfully, it was a school year without much drama. After the issues we had with Aidan's 3rd grade teacher, I was hopeful we'd made the right decision not to loop with her. And for the most part I do think it was a good decision. We had a bit of a scare with math when things just weren't clicking for a while there and he wasn't testing well. At all. But magically, something clicked at the end of the 3rd quarter and he ended up on the A/B honor roll for the year, and did well on both EOG tests. He's a really smart dude who reads like it's his job. Such a bookworm--I love it!


It's beyond me why Aidan looks so much happier on his first day of school than his last...


And Logan. Bear with me as I legit brag for a minute. He's so smart. Even though he doesn't love to read as much as Aidan (yet) he's reading well beyond a 1st grade level. He's naturally good at math like Adam, and was even talking Aidan through some math logic on a few homework assignments. He's now in the AIG program where he tested in the 98th percentile for math.



I know academics aren't everything, but I'm glad both of them at least started out elementary school doing so well, setting a good academic foundation for them to build on. I know we're bound to hit more speed bumps along the way like we did this year with Aidan and math, but success early on shows them that even when things get tougher, they have proven the ability to do well.

I'm so proud of both of them!


Of course Lorelai had to get in on the action. I'm proud of her too, of course :)


And now, on to our (much too brief) summer break. I haven't done a bucket list for this summer, but hopefully we can still make the most of it anyway!

Spring Fever

The weather has finally been mostly nice lately, so I've got a bad case of spring fever. I wish it was the kind of fever that makes me want to clean...but in reality, it's the kind of fever that makes me want to spend all kinds of time outside. And um, doing anything except blogging, apparently.

Aidan and Logan are out on their 3-week (minus 2 snow makeup days) intersession from their year-round school, so I took last Friday off to just hang out with them. It was one of those perfect days where you're exhausted at the end of it, but smiling like a loon 'cause it was just that wonderful. Maybe my bar is low because we didn't do anything all that exciting, but it was crazy productive, and the best part was that it was quality time with them and only them--a rare thing these days.

After dropping Lorelai off at daycare, we started off the day bright and early with a trip to Target for some Starbucks and shopping. They browsed their stuff, indulged me while I browsed my stuff, we smelled candles for a riduculously long time and cracked jokes about the ones that smelled horrible.

Our next stop was Petco, at their request. Adam's not on board yet (um, at all) but the boys and I are really interested in fostering cats through the Independent Animal Rescue after talking to the representative for a long time. Seems like a good way to introduce the kids to the responsibility of having pets without the immediate life-long commitment. We'll see...

Anyway, then we hit up Michaels to browse and ended up with the makings for jewelry instead of the makings for a spring wreath like I'd intended, oh well! I like my two new pairs of earrings better. :)



Our last stop was Walmart, where we loaded up some other stuff we needed, as well as flowers and vegetable plants, because on a whim, we decided to plant a garden. It's been four years since we've had one (it didn't do so well the last time--basically never got watered since I was very pregnant with Lorelai that summer, oops!). The boys are really interested in helping, so it seemed like a perfect thing to do. We took turns hoeing the garden (but let's be real, I did most of it), potting plants and watering. Hopefully we'll have our very own strawberries, tomatoes and peas soon! And zucchini, if I can manage to find a plant.



To cap off our day and take a "break" from the gardening, we took a jog down to the neighborhood playground where the boys played for a while. On another whim, we decided to finally--after 11 years living in this neighborhood--walk the nature trail that winds along our neighborhood creek. I figured if I was going to do it at all, it'd have to be now, before the snakes all wake up to come "play" and the foliage fills in too much. It was such a great walk! Of course I had to grab a stick for protection just in case, because we all know how I feel about snakes...

We jogged (well they jogged--I did some HIIT sprinting/jogging, go me!) back home and played outside some more until Adam got home with Lorelai. At the end of the day, the boys and I were filthy and tired, but so proud of all we did, and the fun we had together. And bonus for me--I logged some serious calorie burn with all the activity, since I only sat down to drive and eat the entire day. And hoeing is seriously hard work. :)

Sometimes I cry because I'm so happy

The other night, I checked on each of my kids before I went to bed, just like I always do. I took a snuggly sleeping girl to the potty, and gave each boy a kiss and fixed their covers. And as always, I whispered in their ears how much I love them, how amazing they are, and how lucky I am to have them.

I always hope that my loving words will make it into their subconscious or their dreams or something. I don't know. But that night, by the time I made it back into my bed, I was literally in tears (and I may or may not be in tears again as I write this). At that moment, I was so overwhelmed with the love I have for those 3 special people.

I cried to Adam, marveling about how happy I am because of them. How much I love and cherish our family. How awesome our kids are. How did we get so lucky to call them ours?

What a good feeling.

Glimpses

Every now and then, I catch glimpses of Aidan and Logan that transport me back in time to when they were little.

Just yesterday, Aidan cocked his head to the side and gave me this exact same look. In that split second, he was 4 years old again.


October 2008

And Logan with his puppy. Oh, that puppy. He's been attached to this thing since he was a baby. And to this day, he still likes to sniff/rub it against his lip when he's upset or tired. Every time I catch him doing it, he looks like a toddler to me.


(Left) almost 2; (Right) 15 months


In those glimpses, I feel sad that they're not so little anymore. And then I feel guilty—as if them being older is a bad thing. It's not a bad thing, just very bittersweet. I love who they are now and who they will become, but I'll always be incredibly nostalgic and miss the time when they were my sweet, snuggly baby boys.


(Left)Aidan, 10 months old, 2005; (Right)Logan, 9 months old

Halfway to adulthood...otherwise known as Aidan's 9th birthday

Happy 9th birthday to my sweet, handsome Aidan!




I was thinking about it this weekend, and I realized he's halfway to adulthood. What?! How can that be? In as many years as I've had this amazing person under my roof, I'm likely going to be packing him up and sending him off for new adventures without me. Without me. Right now, I can't bear the thought. I'm sure as time goes on, I'll be ready, but that thought kind of blows my mind right now.

****

In what's now an official tradition, we celebrated Aidan's birthday at the beach. This time, a few days early. It was very low-key, as usual. Just the five of us and my mom, with pizza and cupcakes. And this year I didn't even bother with any lame decorations. But that's still just fine with him, and I'm not one to argue with going to the beach or making things as simple as possible. :)


Of course, simple cupcakes couldn't actually be simple. No chocolate for Lorelai--we found out the hard way last year that she won't sleep if she has chocolate before bed. And on the other hand, Logan won't eat anything unless it's ONLY chocolate. So a handful of M&Ms for him. Eh, I aim to please.


I worried about what to get him since I don't really want to buy any toys "just because" I wanted to wrap something. So I became our dentist's worst nightmare (or best dream?) by wrapping up a bag full of treats, so he'd have something to open at his party (ok, and I'm hoping he'll want to share--he usually does!). We wanted to save his real presents from us for his actual birthday.



He's really not that into many toys right now, anyway. He's still into books though, and more recently, into comics. He's checked out numerous Garfield books from the library, so Adam and I decided to run with that theme and get him a monthly subscription of the Justice League of America comic. Not exactly Garfield, but we think he'll like it.

And he and Logan have both talked about wanting to save up for the Lego Death Star, so they've decided that Lego store gift cards would make really nice gifts until they have enough to buy it together. They'll be saving up for a while, but it'll make gift-giving a bit easier until then. :)



Other things I always want to remember about Aidan at age 9:

• He's not nearly as moody as he was last year. Hallelujia! 
• In a school assignment this week, he described himself as intelligent, kind, athletic and awesome. Pretty safe to say he's also confident. :)
• He's so responsible and helpful--he even knows how to fix my Starbucks coffee and actually got my refill and made it for me while I stayed with Lorelai and the shopping cart (we grocery shop at Target so I get Starbucks when we get there and a refill before we leave). I was so impressed that he was more than willing and able to do that for me! 
• He'll also take his brother to the restroom when we're out. (Strength in numbers against pervy bathroom creepers, right?)
• He loves reading and I've caught him with a flashlight and a book after bed time more than once.
• He's read all of his Big Nate books at least twice. Now he's into the Z.Rex series and is also a big fan of the Origami Yoda series.
• He'd be a couch potato if we let him, between TV shows and video games. Thankfully, he does like to play outside as well.
• He loves swimming and wants to learn how to do back flips into the pool. I can't say I'm on board with this...yikes!
• He likes to draw.
• He's interested in Minecraft, but not obsessed...yet.
• When the grandparents took him shopping for his birthday, he picked out a Lego watch, a Lego Chima set, a boogie board and a set of Trash Pack toys. Guess that's his new thing...

To my sweet Aidan Benjamin, the one who made me a mom: I'm in awe of you every day. Of how you continue to be an amazing big brother to Logan and Lorelai. Of how you keep growing and learning and adapting, surprising me all the time. You're so smart, charming, witty and engaging. You're kind, responsible, caring and helpful. You're everything I could have hoped you would be and more. I love you with all of my heart, and I'm just so stinkin' proud and lucky to be your mom.


May all your wishes come true!

1st and 4th

After a fun but always too short 5-week summer break, it was time to head back to class today for Aidan's first day of 4th grade and Logan's first day of 1st grade. (Insert cliche but oh so true comment about how time sure flies...)



We went school shopping yesterday (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) and packed their backpacks full of supplies. What is it about fresh supplies that's so exciting? I don't know, but we were all excited and ready for the first day.




Aidan was a little upset that none of his friends from last year are in his class this year. Apparently we were the only ones who opted out of looping with his teacher from last year. I'm slightly concerned that we made the wrong decision because I didn't get warm fuzzies from his new teacher. But only time will tell. Aidan did say that she's really strict, so what I'm most worried about is that he won't connect with her. And maybe he'll be resentful that he didn't get to stay with the teacher he loved last year and it'll affect his motivation. I don't know. But I'm really trying not to stress about it yet. Trying and failing, for the record. How could I not stress about it when the first thing he said to me when I got home was that "it was a sad day." Because of the friends thing, and because he dropped his sandwich at lunch and couldn't eat it. Breaks my heart. I SO want him to have a great year and nurture the love of school he's had in the past.

As for Logan, he didn't get the teacher we hoped for—the one who Aidan had in Kindergarten, and who my sister had back in 1991(!). But the teacher he has seems nice, and Logan said he likes her. Plus, he has two friends from his class last year, so that helps tremendously. At least I don't have to worry about Logan (yet...).



And this little girl. Bless her heart, I think she's a little jealous of the boys getting to go to school! From school supply shopping where she had her very own book bag and princess crayons picked out, to first day of school photos, she just HAD to get in on the action. Only two (yes, TWO) years until her first day of kindergarten. Hold me.




I certainly wouldn't mind any positive thoughts for a good school year for the both of them. School is just so important, and they have so many years left of it, so I'd just hate for and bad experiences to change their whole attitude about it, know what I mean?

But like I said, time will tell.

School's out! Finally!

Friday was the last day of school, woohoo!

I can't tell you how excited I am that this school year is finally over. Not gonna lie, it's been stressful. More than double the homework between the two boys (Aidan just had SO much), plus projects, Aidan's first year taking EOGs...it's seemed like one LONG year.


Are you serious? Are we really done?!


But both Aidan and Logan were champs and made it through with flying colors. And good grades. :)


The fine print: technically these last day photos were taken on 6/6, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea raining out any potential photos on their actual last day. Score one for mom for thinking ahead though!

Another dramatic transformation for Aidan. Maybe it's just the hair. :)


I can't believe the progress Logan made this year. Sometimes I forget he was only in Kindergarten, and didn't even know how to read or spell at the beginning of the year. I did have high hopes for him since he's one of the older Kindergartners (missed the cutoff by 1 week) and he proved me right. His reading level (mClass level I) is on level for end of 1st grade, he's good at and enjoys math, he's done some impressive creative writing, and his teacher said he was the only one in his class to get all 12 questions correct on test of analogies for AIG screening. That was only one part of the AIG screening so we won't know until after more testing next year whether he qualifies, but we'll see! Regardless, we're just so proud of how far he came. The transformation is nothing short of impressive.




And Aidan. Oh, Aidan. Despite the, um, issues I had with his teacher...he did great, as always. A Honor Roll in the first and last quarters, and A/B Honor Roll in the middle two quarters. He studied hard all year, and hopefully rocked his first-ever EOGs. (Grades don't come back until October because it's a new set of tests so they have to analyze the results.)



Gotta be honest, my frustrations with his teacher have been a huge part of what's made this year more stressful for me. Thankfully, Aidan was mostly insulated from that. He never saw me get stabby over the numerous overly!!!! exuberant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! emails with bad grammar (exhibit A, exhibit B). He genuinely liked his teacher. For that, I'm so grateful, because having that connection with her helped motivate him to work hard and succeed. Despite any of her other faults, I give her the utmost credit for her enthusiasm for teaching and affection for her students.

The unfortunate complication is that we were offered the "exciting opportunity" to loop with her since she's being moved up to 4th grade (can you believe it?!?). He really wants her again, but Adam and I just can't do it. My sanity can't handle reading another dreadful email, and I don't want any more project grades to suffer based on her lack of expertise (or basic logic) when it comes to rubric grading. I feel bad that we're denying Aidan this opportunity, but I'm looking forward to starting fresh. As far as he knows, we're parting on good terms, and that's all that matters.

Now that Kindergarten and 3rd grade are behind us, we can all focus on a glorious (but waaaaay too short) 5 weeks of break enjoying our summer. Summer bucket list-making is in progress and I can't wait!

Wacky Tacky Wednesday

Over-sized polka dot shirt, green tank top (so people "don't see my nipples"--what Lorelai literally said this morning), floral skirt, blue reindeer socks and mismatched pig tails. NAILED IT.



In my opinion, I think we topped the tacky from last time. Although...this morning Adam's ONLY comment was about her hair. So maybe it's not as heinous an outfit as I thought? Or maybe she's just totally on trend with all the pattern mixing. ;)

It's Week of the Young Child at daycare, so in addition to today being Wacky Tacky Wednesday, there was also an ice cream social this afternoon. It was perfect timing since the boys were out for early release and could join us. Pretty sure they ruined their dinner with two bowls of ice cream each, but they were sure happy to eat and get to play on the baby toys.



And then we played with inchworms, because apparently that's what we do now.



Lorelai was extremely eager to show her friend the inchworm the Aidan found.


Hope everyone's Wednesday was slightly less tacky, but equally awesome.