Double Digits

Keely celebrated her 10^th birthday. Ten, a decade, double digits…wow! I was pretty morose about my baby turning 10, but for the few weeks before her birthday I started conditioning myself to her turning 10, saying she was about to be 10 when people asked how old she was, etc. By the time her birthday rolled around, I was fine with it. Ah, the trials and tribulations of a mom’s drama :) But this isn’t about me, it’s about Keely so I’ll get to it!

Much like Quinn, she started her birthday celebrations a few days early when Nana and Papa came to visit. She got some spa time in with Nana and I, getting a Halloween manicure and a pink hair extension. She chose to go out for Hibachi for her birthday dinner with our guests, and what a great choice. We haven’t been to that type of restaurant in some time, and it was a very yummy meal. She especially loved the soup, and using the chopsticks to eat most of her meal. After dinner, it was time for presents and cake. She got spoiled with lots of gifts from N&P…including a new American Girl doll Saige, a gift card to Michael’s, and a new scarf handmade by Nana to name a few of the many gifts. Her cake was just a simple round two layer marble cake with pink frosting. She helped me decorate it – at first, she wanted a spider web, then a soccer ball, and then it turned into a creation all its own complete with M&Ms spelling her initials. I love that my kids are so flexible with my ineptitude at cake decorating!

On her actual birthday, she took cupcakes to school and got to hand them out at lunch time. For dinner that night, she chose ham, mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. For dessert, we had what was left over from the cupcakes she brought to school. They even sang to her at soccer practice since it fell on her actual birthday! After cake, she got her presents from us – some clothes from her favorite store and a Caboodles makeup kit from Mom & Dad, and new rubber bands for her Rainbow Loom from Quinn (in Poe colors, black and yellow – sort of a gift for himself too so he could have her make him a Poe themed bracelet).

We may still have yet another celebration of her birth, this time with friends. With the busyness that is life though, that date isn’t set nor is it a definite so I decided not delay this anymore. In any event, she had a wonderful birthday, and while she wasn’t eager to hit double digits she also grew accustomed to it and is happy to be 10. It’s like she is an old soul, she often says she doesn’t want to get old…and I try and tell her that she’s not, 10 is still very young but I think she just doesn’t want to grow up. I can’t say I blame her! She’s always seemed older and wiser than her years, and I think this is another case of that. In any event, she is turning into a fine young woman and we are blessed to have her with us each day. I couldn’t imagine life without my sweet girl, my Keely Roo and I’m glad she had a wonderful birthday to celebrate the day she entered our lives!

Confirmation

About a year ago, Karen asked me to be Tyler's Confirmation sponsor. I was honored and accepted, but the date seemed so far off. Of course, it came and went before I knew it. I drove to New Jersey and back in 24 hours, but it was worth the trip to be there for Tyler. The boys were confirmed in James' family church, where Keely was baptized and I have been more times than I can count. As I was standing with Tyler for the anointing, it was a bittersweet moment. I am his Godmother, I held him at his Baptism when he was blessed with the Holy Water. I thought it was pretty special to be with him that day almost 15 years ago when he was welcomed into the Catholic church, and on this day when he was there of his own choosing - beginning his adult life in the Catholic church. As the Monsignor said in his homily, this was not a Catholic graduation - although most of the kids are for sure looking forward to no more CCD - but a beginning of their lives as adults in the Catholic church.

I'm happy that Tyler asked me and glad that I was able to be there for this special day in both Tyler and Jordan's life!

Postponed

I don’t normally write about political events or even about current events all that much. This blog was always intended to be only about the current events in our life. Sometimes the world or state or local current events intermingle with our own little world though, and then I’m forced to incorporate them into my writing. The government began a partial shut down on October 1^st. When it was looming and even when it happened, I had no thoughts of it impacting my life. Months ago, I had chosen my fall half marathon which was the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon to be held on October 6^th. What I didn’t realize about the government shutdown was that it would affect the race because much of it is run on National Park Service land, which technically closed with the shutdown. A day later, the decision was made to postpone the race to November 10^th. Two of my friends and I ran our own 13.1 that Saturday, dubbed the Government Shutdown Half, because the shut down couldn’t stop us from running. Truth be told, the weather was abnormally hot and humid for early October and it was probably for the best that the race had been postponed. Our 13.1 turned into a training run, and we took our time finishing in about 2 hours, 15 minutes…a far cry from my personal best, and from my goal of close to or under 2 hours. I could have run faster but I stuck with my friends and it was a nice run, aside from the heat and humidity. We even got a few thumbs up from fellow runners on our homemade shirts. 

The race being postponed has left me with a mix of emotions. Obviously, I felt well prepared and was mad that it didn’t go off as planned. I was so ready to be done with weekend long runs and training. On top of that, I was dealing with a sore hamstring on that last 13.1 mile training run. I tend to over-react so had I written this a week or 10 days ago, I would have been pretty down because of that hamstring. But in the last week or so, I’ve been able to run with less and less pain thanks to stretching, heat and incorporating weekly yoga into my workouts. I even got a 9.5 mile long run in on Sunday. I feel like I will be able to get one more long run in this weekend and then do another two week taper. The government is re-opened, so no worries about another postponement or (worse) cancellation. And with the date change, I will have more spectators in my cheering section at the finish line because the Weitz family will be here that same weekend :)

A Dozen

Quinn celebrated his 12^th birthday last week. I know I say this all the time, but I honestly can’t believe he is 12! I know I will say that each year because it does seem like just yesterday that he was a tiny little baby (well, not so tiny for those who remember his birth weight but still a lot smaller than he is now). He’s growing into a fine young man, and I love that he while he’s grown up in a lot of ways, he still has time for hugs from mom and is very loving, telling us every day that he loves and appreciates us.

As usual, his birthday seemed to last more than just one day – with really three different celebrations.

The first celebration was the weekend before when Nana, Papa and Aunt Annie came to visit and celebrate with Quinn. We went out to dinner on Saturday night (thanks Papa!) and Quinn chose the restaurant – although it was partly governed by him wanting to go to the Lego Store which meant he chose from the restaurants at Tysons Corner. We had a great meal at Gordon Biersch Brewery, and got our shopping in at Lego – even Keely managed to get some shopping in at Justice (how does that manage to happen?!?!). I made a train cake…I at first thought Quinn was harkening back to his younger years wanting a basic train cake but in typical Quinn fashion, he surprised me by making the 4 cars into a Metro train cake. Fitting since I work on the Dulles Rail Metro extension J He’s so creative, just asking me to make and ice the cake and then he takes over with decorating. He designed each of the cars, and even had Gummy Bears waiting on the platform to board the train. Two cars were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and the other two were chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. It was a really cute cake, and tasted great! After cake, he opened presents – the theme this year was mostly Legos and books. I honestly wonder when he will outgrow his Legos – maybe never! There’s nothing he likes more than tearing into a new set of Legos and following the directions to build the set…except tearing it down and making his own creations! Oh, and devouring a new book of course :)

The second was his actual birthday. Since he’s now in middle school, there was no celebration at school except he did get 12 pieces of candy from the 6^th grade principal. He chose dinner…which was breakfast. French toast J We surprised him with Crumbs cupcakes for dessert – a treat for the whole family (except James who doesn’t eat cupcakes) and he got his presents from us – a Lego set from Mom & Dad, and a book from Keely. See, the theme continues on…

The third and last celebration was with his friends. He initially tried to talk us into Paintball, but we talked him into a sleepover because paintball is quite expensive. At 3 AM when they were still awake, I was thinking maybe paintball would have been a better – albeit more costly – choice! We had his two best friends over. They had pizza, watched a movie, ate popcorn, candy, and ice cream cake (homemade – and much better on my second attempt!).They stayed up way too late…and got up way too early. They had fun though, and that’s what matters most!

So now Quinn is 12, and we have one more year before he is officially a teenager. Still, I marvel at how quickly that seems to have happened. The reality is he’s growing up, and there is not one thing we can do to stop that – so we enjoy each day with him and marvel at the fine young man he is becoming!