Wednesday, October 30, 2013

One Year Closer to Having a Teenager

Happy 11th Birthday to my sweet boy, Stomper.  It is freaking me out how big he is getting - I watch the top of his head grow closer and closer to the top of my head as the weeks go by - he's just past my chin these days.  I am in trouble.  Why does it feel overwhelming to have your own offspring be taller than you?  Will I still be in charge once he hits 5'4"?  Don't answer that - I'm barely clinging to parental control as it is.
The day he was born - six weeks early much to our surprise!



(And THAT is how you make yourself cry - my little baby!!!)

So yes, we celebrated Stomper's birthday yesterday, his actual birthday, and it was great.

There is a certain item for which he has been longing with much pleading and bargaining and begging.  That item would be something called a 3DS XL.  It's a little Nintendo game player.  Not as little as its predecessor, but still hand held.  And it does 3D.  Oooooo.  Truthfully, Troy and I tried with all our mights to talk Stomper into wanting an iPad mini but he wasn't to be swayed.  So we worked it out - Stomper could choose to spend the money we usually reserve for a party, along with gifted money from his grandparents as well as selling his old DS, to purchase the new 3DS XL with accompanying game.  I thought this was a pretty grown up thing for him to do, to recognize that on the day of his birthday he would not have a friends party, would have not much to open besides some envelopes containing the needed dollars.  And still he wanted it.  And was happy.

Troy and I decided to have a little fun - we tracked down the right 3DS XL along with the game he wanted most and purchased them in advance and hid them.  He had no idea.  I was so excited to surprise him!

We had a fun day - mostly trying to kill him off with unhealthy foods at every turn - he wanted scones and sausage for breakfast, then he wanted donuts for his class treat, plus Troy surprised him at lunch with a burger as a little surprise, and then for dinner with the grandparents we had this decadent meal of orange chicken, chow mien and shrimp cocktail.  Oh yeah, and my dear father, who heard from me that Stomper's favorite food on the planet is crab legs, brought a gift of two king crab legs from Market Street. (I owe my dad.  That was really really nice.)  So basically we stuffed him and ourselves all day.  Urp.

Then he sat down for presents - a friend had dropped off a gift he was excited to open plus there were some envelopes from his grandparents.  He was charming and delighted and didn't show a hint of disappointment, which made it all the more rewarding when we surprised him with one last little package.  Check out this awesome face Troy caught with the camera:



Isn't that the best ever?  So glad we got that.  We let him play for a bit before we pried him away for cake and ice cream.  This time, as per Stomper's request, the ice cream was included WITH the cake. Tricky to figure out but I finally just put ice cream in the cake pans, put a baked layer of cake on top to squish the ice cream into the right shape and stuck it in the freezer for a couple of hours - it worked well!



What a fun evening, what a calorie rich day!!  Totally worth it.  I love that boy of mine, I really do.

1 comment:

Misty said...

As a very experienced mother of teenagers (ha!), I have to say that the teenage years are pretty darn great, too. They suddenly become such cool people -- funny, grown up humor, enjoy the same movies, someone to hang out with and not just take care of. I'm a fan. :)