Happy birthday to my almost adult

Happy birthday to my biggest boy. I cannot believe I'm the mother of a 17-year-old. This was his last birthday as a child. A minor. A non-adult. A teenager still under my complete responsibility. This time next year, he'll be a legal adult. Not yet able to have a beer, but old enough to smoke a cigarette, to see an "R" rated movie, to join the military, to get married, to vote, to say "I'm 18 now, Mom, you can stop bugging me to get a haircut." My baby will be old enough to do any of those things. I can certainly voice my opinion, but the decisions will no longer be mine. They'll be his.



Oh, and yes. I need to stock up on candles. He requested a pan of brownies instead of a cake. We told him one candle had to represent 7 years.



Birthdays bring back memories

Today my fourth son turned 6 years old. Yesterday I reminded him it was his last day to be five. He pondered for a moment and said he’d like to stay five. Why? I think he had quite a crush on his Kindergarten teacher. He said he wanted to be five again and again so he could be in Miss Kistner’s class forever!

I had to do some shopping this afternoon and invited him along on a trip to Kmart. I love when I get a chance to spend alone time with each of the boys. I told him he could pick out a birthday toy since it was his birthday. I was expecting Legos or an action figure. Nope. He wanted the SpongeBob skateboard. I tried to sway him toward something a little less dangerous, but he was set on the skateboard. I explained that he’d have to wear a helmet and pads on his elbows/knees. Tonight he tried it out. Within 15 minutes he had a wipeout. For some reason I’m envisioning an ER visit in my future!

Also, I’ve been working on a feature story on baby name trends. I LOVE writing about baby names. Reminds me of when Brandon was born 6 years ago today. I was due July 23 and was having contractions on my due date after my OB stripped some membranes in the office that morning. While I was on the sofa trying to take a nap, the door bell rang. It was a delivery of my second book which was set to be out in stores that week. I was so excited, but didn’t even open it to look inside. Within a couple hours I was on my way to the hospital.

We knew we were having another boy and I loved the name Conner. My husband wasn’t so keen on it because we already had two boys with “C” names. So, the alternates were Brandon (his choice) and Justin (mine.) All three of the other boys were named before they were born, although I did have a last minute change on my second one’s middle name. When our fourth one was born, we still weren’t sure what we’d call him. We pondered it for a couple days and figured we needed to decide. Neither my husband or I had a strong preference, so we decided to let our oldest son, who was 9, choose the name. When I was pregnant with my second son and he was four-years-old, he was adamant about naming his brother Elwood Butter. He was crushed that we weren’t as enthusiastic as he was about the name choice. This time we gave him three choices: Brandon, Conner or Justin. He settled on Brandon and Conner seemed a good fit as a middle name. I think he liked it because it sounded like his name, Bradley. I did have second thoughts and considered calling him by his middle name, but after calling him Brandon for a few hours it seemed to stick. Hard to believe it was 6 years ago today. He was my easiest of the labors and the largest of my boys (go figure) at 8 lbs. 5 oz. He didn’t quite make it in on his due date and waited until the wee hours of the morning to arrive. Wow how time flies!

Busy days make you count your blessings

Whew, it's been a busy few days. The weather has been lovely lately, which is wonderful. However, it's also a reminder that I have to finish packing up the winter clothes and pull out all the summer stuff. It's a big job to tackle and I haven't had a big enough block of time to complete it, so I keep putting it off. It's time to get down to it, though, so that may be how I'll be spending my Memorial Day.

On Friday, I accompanied my kindergarten on a field trip to the zoo. Although I've been to Lincoln Park Zoo many times before, I was looking forward to spending the day with my little guy, soaking up the sun and seeing the monkeys, flamingoes, tigers and other animals. After a 1 1/2 hour ride on the bus to get there, we were left with 2 hours and 15 minutes to stroll through the zoo before we had to get back on the bus. Then the ride home took 2 hours and 20 minutes due to some re-routing because of a fire near the expressway. So, needless to say, it wasn't as pleasant of a day as I had hoped.

Yesterday morning I sat in the bleachers doing a pitch count during my son's game. The game was a real nailbiter. Just when the time limit was met, the game tied up and they ended up doing another inning. Later that evening I was able to get a little time to myself and I drove to pick up an old friend and former co-worker who happened to have an extra ticket to see her absolute favorite singer of all time - George Strait. I'm a big country music fan and love George myself, so I couldn't pass up the chance to go see him. My friend was in her glory - 16 rows from the stage. Julianne Hough (the cute blond from Dancing with the Stars) and Blake Shelton opened the show.

Today I took the kids up to Michigan to visit the Curious Kids Museum in St. Joseph, so I could check it out to write a travel article. We stopped along the lake on the way back for some pictures and they ran off some energy in the McDonald's playland before the long drive home. Then we finished off the night with birthday cake for son #2 who turned 10 today. Sometimes in these busy days, you don't even have time to breathe, but when I do have a chance to stop and reflect, I count my blessings and feel an appreciation for the time I was able to share with my boys - even if it was a nearly 4-hour round trip with the last hour spent listening to a five-year-old whine because he had to go to the bathroom. :)