T is the big 12!

This is a big birthday. You have waited for this one for along time. Big changes! Today you are 12. Today you have your last day of 11 year old scouts and move up to the big Deacon’s Quorum. You will receive the Priesthood on Sunday and we are so proud of you. You are totally excited to have a birthday party with a bunch of your friends this Friday night. I’m excited for all your new adventures. You are fun to be with. You keep your mom and dad hopping. You help us out a ton. You are super smart and serve your family well. You are an awesome student and work hard to get straight A’s all the time even in your Honors classes. You have started playing the trombone and even though it makes your little sister scream, you are getting better all the time. We love you big guy!!

Growing up

Someone told my kids it was okay to grow up. Someone told my sweet little baby girl that it was okay to go to preschool. Someone told her to not even get a little teary eyed and go confidently with her new teacher. I am glad she had a good first day. I don't think I could have handled it if she cried. I just miss my babies a little today.

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Someone else told my dear oldest son that it was also okay to grow up. He has started middle school. I knew this would bring change. He went from the kid in elementary school who was blissfully unaware of others opinions, to caring way too much about his friends in middle school. He does have a good group of friends. He does well in school. This mom is just noticing little things and it's making me miss my little boy. He turns 12 in two weeks and more change will come. He will go join the Boy Scouts, join YM, and receive the priesthood. All huge deals. All wonderful. All telling me he is is again growing up. It's just me and him for a whole 10 minutes on the way to school. I have him read in the Book of Mormon to me on the way. I like knowing that is how he is starting his day. I know it will help. He jumped in the front seat the other day on the way to school. I asked him why he did that since it's not exactly easy for him to do that in our garage. He just shrugged his shoulders. I noticed when we got to school that most of the kids get out of the front seat. He is noticing things. Little things. Not things that will change our life. He is just noticing and then following his peers. That scares me! I will say the next day he didn't get in the front seat. I think he realized it was a whole lot of work for no real reason. Either way, this mama is daily trying to figure this all out and be the type of mom he can come to and the same one that will set rules and guidelines that will keep him safe. Man it's exhausting. Makes me miss this kid....

Someone told my second son that it was okay to grow up as well. Today I got a call from the principal's office. I was stunned as I listened to him say that H had been in the bathroom when he saw a kid climbing the stall. He told him to get down cause he was going to get hurt. The other kid proceeded to hit my son in the head. When the principal said those words, my heart sank and I pictured my poor little H hurt and scared. He said that my son was okay and not really hurt. The other kid apologized and the principle mentioned that H was very mature in how he handled the entire thing. I went to pick him up from the bus 20 minutes later and as soon as I saw Hayden, I knew he was fine. He smiled and didn't have any bruises or blood on him. In fact, he didn't even say anything. ANYTHING. I was stunned. I went and told his dad the situation and finally we couldn't stand it any more. We had to ask him what happened. He told us that the other boy was a special needs kid. He said it did hurt some but that he knew the other child didn't totally understand what he had done. He forgave him and moved on. Again...my kids are growing up. These are older kids situations...this mama's heart can't handle it. Miss this baby too....

And I can't leave out little C. Man that kid cracks me up. He cries a lot around here. That is how I know he has his own growing pains. He is either so happy over the moon about something or bawling his eyes out. He recently lost his first tooth. He was soooo excited about this. As it was loose for a couple of days, he walked around telling anyone that would listen, that he had a "loosened tooth". The big night finally came. I thought it was about the money. We put the tooth in our tooth fairy pillow. He went to sleep and luck would have it, the tooth fairy had a gold dollar for that special boy. Then at about 3am I awake to hear someone crying. I go into the boy's bathroom and C is holding the tooth fairy pillow. I ask him if he didn't like the money he got, he said "I just really want to see my tooth again just for a little bit. Do you think you could talk to the tooth fairy and ask her to please, please let me see it just for a few minutes." Oh boy. My heart broke for the little guy. Either this was the biggest scam to call me out on being the tooth fairy, or I might just have the most sentimental guy on the planet. And just so you know, C was able to "visit" his tooth a couple times before the tooth fairy took it for good. Man alive these guys are growin!!

So someone tell them to stop....please!