Thoughts on Becoming a Parent of a Teenager

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Hello! How are you all doing? I hope your day is going great. It just hit me when I was getting out of my car this morning from dropping off the boys that today I officially become a parent of a teenager. Let’s all take a collective pause……….Nick is now 13 years old and I simply can’t believe it. I knew the day would come but wow, so fast.  Some rethinking is in order.

I have this thing that I always do with “milestone” birthdays with the boys. On the day before their birthday, I pump them up with statements that remind them that this will be the last time they do “x” at their current age. So last night I told Nick, “This is the last time you will have tacos at age twelve the next time you have them you will be a teenager.” I also said, “Today you were 12 when I picked you up from school, tomorrow you will be a teen when you walk through those doors.” They respond so cute to my comments. I think they appreciate the spotlight on the big change.

But as I stepped out of my car this morning, I realized this is officially a new time in my life as well. First, I have to wrap my brain around the fact that I am a mother of a teenager. What??? Nope..ah ok, yes. It’s not like I am a spring chicken but in my mind I have young children. So I now have to accept these new phases as they come at me. I always laughed when my girlfriend talked about her nightmare stories of her teenage girls because it seemed so far away. I used to skip over articles about dealing with your teenager in magazines but now, I know I will slow down and give them a glance. This is a big day for us all as a family. I can’t believe it was thirteen years ago I had my first child. I remember everything. I remember the bed rest, nursing, first steps, snuggling, those teeny tiny fingers and that oh so cute baby laugh. Time truly moves swiftly and I am grateful for all those moments and the new ones to come.

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I hope Nick has an amazing day and moves into this new chapter in life with joy and openness. I know we will go through challenging times but am happy we have a great family to move through this process with us. He is a quite an amazing son and I look forward to all the growth he will continue to experience. Even though I complain at times, I wouldn’t change a thing. Love that boy.  I wrapped up some of his gifts this morning and a few have not arrived and a special surprise gift won’t arrive until the end of next week. But that’s all good.

Have a blessed day friends!

Belinda

A Family Adventure

Well now the secret is no more. At the end of summer Leao and I made reservations and got tickets to take the boys to Disney World.  Every time I wrote a post I wanted to share the great news but it was a secret. But let me go back a bit to explain…

I would say that for about the past two years, the boys have been talking about going to Disney World. I had been once as a child with my mom and Leao had never been. But in my mind, I wanted them to be the right age to fully enjoy the experience and possibly remember it into adulthood.  So as this summer came to an end, I suggested to Leao that we seriously consider this year.  I didn’t want to go on spring break or any of the other school breaks. I knew the prices would shoot up even higher and the amount of people would probably be insane. So after talking to friends of ours, we picked dates around the Columbus day weekend. We only had to pull the boys from school 3 days. So we chose a 6-day vacation.

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We decided to keep the entire trip a secret from the boys. For many reasons, one being we wanted them to focus on school work and  second to ensure they slept the days leading up and before we left for Disney. So I packed the suitcases and placed them in different locations so as not to draw attention. We decided to tell them the morning we left for Disney. Now how’s that for surprise?

I met with my girlfriend, Joan at Barnes and Noble who is our resident Disney expert having gone 4 times already with kids and without.  She and I giggled over my laptop in the cafe as we picked fast-pass selections and made dinner reservations. Which by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed her dinner recommendations!! Yum!!

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I didn’t realize how difficult it was to keep the secret from the boys. I only told a few close friends and family. I didn’t even tell the teachers until the week before to ensure not slip ups.  We actually left at a good time because it was a review period at school.

As the days approached I began to get so excited. I couldn’t wait to tell them. The morning of our departure, we woke them at 3:30am to catch the cab (our flight was 6) to the airport. Leao video taped it but I decided not to put this footage online with Apollo who sleeps without a pajama top and Nicholas would kill me for putting him on the site. So I will just have to share the details in writing.

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Surprise Revealed:

We  went into their room (they share a room) and turned on the lights and I told them, “It’s time to get up…We have to go to the airport”. Nicholas sat up in his bunk and because it was dark outside and very early he naturally seemed confused. Apollo rolled over on the bottom bunk to look at us.  Nicholas said, “What?” I repeated again that we had to go to the airport and that I layed out clothes for them to put on. Nicholas said, “The airport, where are we going?” I said, “Disney. We are going to Disney World.” Then he started to move towards the stairs and said, “What, I thought we were going next year?” Apollo said, “Disney World?” I said, “Nope, we are going right now.” Nicholas said, “Are you telling the truth?’ and Leao and I both said, “We would never wake you this early to tell you this if it weren’t true.” Apollo then jumped out of his bed saying, “I can’t wait to get a shirt. I can’t believe it. I am going to pinch myself to see if this is true…Yup, it hurt so it must be true.”

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They both dressed quickly and then I showed them their Magic bands with their names on it and then it really started to be real.  We took the cab and fast forward to our arrival at Orlando! When we got on the Magic Bus that takes us to our hotel, they started really getting excited.  We checked in early dropped off our things and headed to The Magic Kingdom.  The temperature was hot around 88 but we were just so happy to be there it was worth it.

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Over the course of the 6 days, we went to all the parks with our Park Hopper pass and had a blast. I realized it was our first family adventure with just the 4 of us. We have travelled to Hawaii twice with family to visit family, San Antonio with my in-laws, Florida several times with family and even to my hometown on Cape Cod to a resort with my sister and her husband. So this was really special for just the 4 of us.  My boys are excellent at flying, I knew that from our trips to Hawaii so I knew that would be a breeze and I have to say we had a great time with just the 4 of us and will definitely return. It has taken me some time to get back into my work schedule but the break was much needed and I had a blast.

Tomorrow I have a new blog series I am starting so be sure to check in tomorrow!

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

 

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

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Yesterday was Nicholas’ birthday. I was running around and wasn’t able to put up a post.  He doesn’t like me to put him on my blog anymore so I am refraining from using any photos with his handsome little face in them.  So all I am left with are cake pictures.

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Yesterday he turned 11. Can you believe it? I can’t.  It seems like yesterday I was running back and forth to the doctor (I had to be on bedrest) to make sure my baby boy and I were alright.

Everyone tells you how fast it goes and you shrug it off but then you blink and your baby is grown. Sometimes I even find myself thinking about how sad I will be when he goes away to college. The self-inflicted torture must stop.

Anyway, my inlaws and brother-in-law came over this weekend to help with the continued construction of the studio (what you and I would call a clubhouse) for the boys. They laid the foundation in June and then summer fun got in the way so now they have begun the work again in order to complete it before the bad weather comes. I will post photos soon of the process. It is amazing and I am so proud of my husbands ability to make something so amazing.

So since they couldn’t be here on Monday to celebrate. We celebrated with them on Saturday night and then on Monday we celebrated with him and took him to dinner.

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My mother-in-law made the cake. Now you all know I love paper crafts, knitting, reading and gardening. But making a cake and decorating it…well let’s just say, I leave that to the professionals.  So she made the cake and decorated it with this soccer theme. It was so cute.

I wish for Nicholas a year full of fun adventures, growth and a lot of love.

I am going to go snuggle up with a book today because it’s one of those crawl under a blanket gloomy days outside.

Have a blessed day my friends.

Belinda

Shrinky dinks with My Boys

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Hello Everyone! Happy Monday! I had to run some errands today so I was unable to post the happenings this morning.

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When I was little I remember loving when my mom and I would use shrinky dinks. We made such cool things. One of my favorite things to make was keychains.  So for a few years now I have been thinking about doing it with the boys. I have bought the sheets that you can stamp on etc. but hadn’t used them.  So I loved the idea of a kit with a theme. And I don’t know about you but monsters were  definitely appealing to my boys. So I picked up the kit from Michael’s.

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It was fun watching them each take turns looking into the toaster oven to see their creations curl up and shrink then lay down flat.  It was a short activity and I am finding that this works best for them. I lose them if I try to get too involved.  Which is quite easy for me to do since I enjoy creating.

shrinkydinks4Another cute thing about this kit is that it came with a little background and stands for the monsters. This would be a great craft around Halloween.

Well I am off to go do some reading. I have book club tomorrow and I still have 150 pages left of reading. Thank goodness it is a good book!

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

 

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