Family Ties

By way of a birthday party, all Matthew wanted to do was go to the temple with his cousins. That is what he wanted to do last year as well, but I didn’t every actually make it happen so this year I made sure to get it scheduled. Not everyone was able to come, but Drew (Rachael’s son), Aliese and Corynn (Cory’s girls) were able to join Matthew and Nathan. Since we had a reservation for a family group, they were able to jump the line at the temple. They all really enjoyed that since there was a 2 ½ hour wait. We invited everyone to our house for dinner afterward and those of us who were there had a jolly time. In my opinion, it was an amazing way to celebrate a birthday!

Another Teen

As of today, I only have one child who is not a teenager. Matthew has crossed the threshold into the teen world by turning 13. His birthday happened to fall on a Sunday that we have our extended family dinner, so he got to have his cake on his actual birthday. He requested the recently conquered coconut cake with a pineapple filling instead of coconut. Honestly, I think I liked it even better with the pineapple. It was a huge cake and we had three desserts to feed everyone so I assumed there would be a goodly amount of leftover cake. But I was completely wrong about that. It was a hit and we came home with only a couple of slices. Since Matthew is technically no longer a child, he asked if he could light his own candles. So he played with fire, blew out the candles, and then ate three huge slices of cake.

Matthew’s gift requests were modest and he was perfectly pleased with the trumpet stand and sheet music that he got. He has turned into a band kid, finding great joy in the music, and band has quickly become one of his happy places. His skill has improved so quickly that both the middle school band teacher and the high school band teacher (who teaches the before school jazz band) have commented on how quickly he has learned and how good he is. In fact, he is skipping the intermediate band and moving on to the advanced band as an 8th grader. Every time I hear his practice (which is often), I’m impressed by how much progress he is making. He has been playing for only a year and he’s pretty darn good.

Matthew most definitely adds some spice to our lives. As a baby, he taught Kevin and I about the power of music and a new way to eat. As a toddler, he taught us how to laugh again as the challenges of adult life had weighed us down. As a child he taught us patience as his stubbornness pushed us to develop new parenting skills. As a preteen he has taught us what courage is as he’s worked to bring new foods into his diet, foods that he’s been told all his life will kill him. As a teen, I expect he will have more to teach us. As parents, it is expected that we will teach our children, but I find that the learning goes both ways. I’m very grateful for Matthew and all that he contributes to our family. Being his mother has been very challenging at times, but I’m definitely a better person because he is in my life.

Now I Have Two Teenagers...

Nathan’s birthday was really low key this year. He had his friend birthday party two weeks ago since we have learned from years past that no one is available for a party on Memorial Day weekend. He met a whole new crew of kids while he was in “Annie” and he wanted to invite them all and play improv games. This group is not a small group and we do not have room for 35 or so teenagers in our living room, so we scheduled the gym at the church and held his party there. He planned all the games and everything. All I had to do was provide food. So it was a totally easy party for me.

The night before his birthday was a trip to Desert Star Playhouse. He received this trip as one of his experience gifts for Christmas but when he was hopelessly torn between two shows, we offered to take him to see one for his birthday in addition to the one for Christmas. I didn’t think this show was as funny as the last one we saw, but Nathan enjoyed it thoroughly.

On his actual birthday he received his presents from his siblings and that was about it. He got his present from Kev and me (a stack of sheet music and the Desert Star trip) in advance so there wasn’t even anything from us. I usually try to get at least some balloons and a treat of some sort, but I was really off my game this year and totally missed that. So it was low key.

We celebrated with my family this evening. Nathan has a fondness for carrot cake so that was what I made, but he didn’t even care about having it decorated this time. I guess that’s just one more sign that he’s not a little boy anymore. Everything has been so laid back that I didn’t even take any pictures. Kev snapped one while Nathan was blowing out his candles and that is all we have.

Nathan has grown up a lot in the past year. He has found his place at the middle school and is doing well there. He is learning a lot and loving the learning. He is not as stressed out about the changes in homework and such and even his teachers have mentioned that he has relaxed a lot. He has found himself a big group of friends who have the same interests and hopefully, he will be as lucky as I was in that area and will find these friends sticking with him throughout high school and even beyond. And-one of his favorite accomplishments of the past year-he is taller than I am. ;-)