I can’t believe my baby turned 5 yesterday. I know parents say this all the time, but it really does feel?just like?yesterday that we were driving to the hospital to welcome him to the world. We spent the whole day as a family celebrating the birth of the last member of our little family tree (for now until grandkids come along in the?future).? Dad took the day off of work and we took the day off of school. It was all about our youngest, the baby of the family!

He came into my room?yesterday morning and first thing out of his mouth was “Mom, I’m 5 today.” He’s really been looking forward to this birthday. The thought of being a whole hand old has been pretty exciting to him.?He also had been warning me for the last 16 days that?he was going to look different. I’m not sure what he’d been expecting, but maybe he thought he would look older.?After he came in my room and announced he’s 5, he crawled in bed to cuddle like he does most mornings. We usually lay there and whisper?about whatever comes to his mind. On his mind?this day, of course, his birthday. I wasn’t at all surprised when he asked me if he looked different.

I truly cherish those mornings when I get a little snuggle time. I know that the time is coming where he won’t be doing that anymore. He’ll outgrow me faster than I’m ready for him to. All I can do is enjoy every single minute of time I am blessed to spend with him and look forward to his future. I know it goes by fast and I never really understood that until I became a mom. I feel such joy and ache all at the same time on every birthday of each of my boys. I always have and probably always will cry the night before their big day. The last time they will be that age just hits me so hard. The night before his birthday was no different.

It seemed like the day was a huge success. The birthday boy was thrilled with the all of the surprises that Dad and I had planned for him. He was also very appreciative of the time and effort to make his day special. We had kept the whole day a secret, not telling him anything that was planned. We decorated the house for him after he went to bed and he loved waking up to all the decorations. He looked around in awe just thanking us over and over for all the balloons, streamers, and signs. He loved going to Wacky World and playing on the inflatables. You know a place is a success when your kid tells you it’s the coolest place they’ve ever seen. And I knew we couldn’t go wrong with the bowling. He loooooves to go bowling. Making a day fun for my 5 year old really isn’t hard. He loves everything, especially when the whole family is involved. What makes it special to me is how much he really does appreciate it and how thankful he is.

So, my youngest son, thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for making me laugh every single day that I’m with you. Thank you for being so loving and sweet. Thank you for being silly and dancing and singing and playing and just doing all of the fun things that you do. Thank you for telling me out of the blue how much you love me. Thank you for all of the hugs and kisses that you give to me. Thank you for always being full of surprises (I should have expected it when I found out I was pregnant with you on April Fools day). Thank you for giving me so many things to be thankful for that I could list pages and pages of them. Thank you for just being you and letting me be your mom.

Happy Birthday, T-Bone!!

One weekend my husband and I decided to take our three boys to a state park that was about four hours away from our house.? We packed a picnic, snacks and water to take on our adventure.? We hiked for a few hours taking pictures, just enjoying nature and being together as a family.? It was a lot of fun for all of us.? Everyone got along, there were no fights and no one got hurt.? That is a success in my book.

We had a long ride ahead of us to get home and our lunch and snacks were gone.? So we decided to get some dinner before we got on our way.? As we are sitting and talking the way families often do, we got on the subject of what is “cool”.? In this situation we were talking about hair.? My oldest son is growing his hair out. It was?at that “in between” stage?and driving me nuts.? So I was giving him some hair advice on how to make it look better.? When he piped up, “Maybe what you think is cool and what I think is cool aren’t the same thing.”?

I sat in shock.? Does my ten year old kid think I’m uncool?? Am I merely being tolerated by my kids when I give them fashion and style advice?? It was a big wake up call to me and one that I was not ready for.? It started to make sense to me why they didn’t follow my little tips I had been giving over the years.? I always thought they just didn’t remember because they didn’t really care.? Truth be told, they didn’t?act on my advice?because they didn’t agree. But they chose?not to say anything for fear of hurting my feelings. All those times they had changed their clothes, when I said something, wasn’t because I had made them see the light to matching their clothes.? As men do to women, they just pacified me because they didn’t want to hear it or argue about it.

So now my kids pick out their clothes, shoes, accessories and how to wear their hair.? I might make a suggestions here and there, but I mostly just stay quiet.? Their clothes don’t always match and their hair may not be fixed the way I wanted it, but they are happy and thinking for themselves.? In the big picture that is what I want for them, to be individuals.

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