9 years

The last 9 years have flown by. Absolutely flown. My baby boy turned 9 yesterday and I still can't believe it. 

This blog post from 2 years ago has baby pictures if you want to see one of the cutest babies to ever be born. :)

But back to yesterday. What a great day celebrating such a great life. 

As always, as a family we came with a "Happy birthday" to wake up the birthday kid. 

Birthday hugs from daddy.

He chose donuts for his breakfast...which is pretty much what he does every year. He got to pick them for his siblings too, as you can see they are HUGE fans of fried flour with chocolate on top.

Had to add this one. They are incredibly cute together.

Lots and lots of phone calls from family and friends. He loved every one, even if he is complete rubbish at phone conversations.

Trysten chose Buffalo Wild Wings for his birthday lunch. Lots of loved ones came to celebrate this guy. Including these beautiful people.

We had a few minutes before the boys had their final basketball game so we stopped at a bookstore. Trysten spent the next half hour showing us everything they had regarding Harry Potter (his (and my) favorite obsession). *he ended up receiving this from his grandpa*

After a quick basketball game it was time to pick up the 6 boys that would be having a sleepover (2 of them are my nephews so I don't really count them). :) We had to drive 2 cars, in case you were keeping track.

Trysten chose pizza, root beer and chips for his dinner. His friends enjoyed his choices.

The 3 littles (my 2 with my nephew, Eli) took up their own space. Kind of loved that.

Only 1 injury. I was thankful it was mine, and thankful it seemed ok, relatively speaking. He was just dancing his little heart out and hit the edge of a door frame. 

Trysten doesn't like cake so we stuck with brownies again this year. Crazy kid.

As of Friday 0 kids had RSVPd to his slumber party. When he got home from school that day he told me all of them were coming. As I had not heard from any of their parents I made him call them. Sure enough, they were all planning on it. No one had called, no one knew what time it started or any of those details. It was...weird. But upon hearing that there would indeed be people there, Zach and I rallied. We went to bed early Friday night and consumed copious amounts of caffeine all day Saturday.

But we didn't let the kids stay up super late (in past sleepovers Trysten has been known to come home having not slept at all. oy vey). The boys were asleep by about 11:30 (I, however, was in bed by 10:30. Praise God my husband is a night owl).

This boy. This 9-year-old still lets me do weird things like this: roll into a tiny little ball to try to fit back into my belly. 

He also gives amazing hugs. Uh-mazing. Still at 9. Whenever I want. 

This one. Oh this one. My friend, Rebekah, She was talking about her eldest and said, "He is my son.  I won’t go as far to say he’s a momma’s boy, but he and I have a thing.  We like to be together, just because.  Maybe that’s the definition of a momma’s boy?"

Boy did I love that. Because that's Trysten. We love to be together because, we just do. Because we have some shared interests, we think alike. We react to situations very similarly. The older he gets the more I want to be around him, just because. Just because he's amazing, and funny, and smart and witty and wonderful. 

At times Zach is perplexed by him (mostly about his absolute obsession with Harry Potter). That's when I realize that he is is own dude. Sure, he's more like me. But he is him. He is completely unique and I love that about him.

I love that about our kids getting older. It's different, you know, parenting older kids than toddlers. It's less work in a lot of ways but more work in others. Their personalities are becoming so defined it feels like time is running out to shape them in all of the positive ways we want to as their mom. But we know, don't we, because we've been there. We know that what we say and do will always impact our kids. Even if we are "parenting" less and less. There are less "no, don't touch that" "you can't say that" and more "pick your friends wisely, they have tremendous power to shape who you are and the choices you make", "well, babies are made by..."

It's different but it's just as great, maybe even more so. I love being a mama to this boy, I always have. 

This boy who loves cereal, prime rib and cheese crisps. The boy who has fashion sense like no other 9-year-old I know. The boy who loves skateboarding, snowboarding and reading. Despite having 2 parents who loved sports (and were slightly above average in most) he has very little interest in them. He loves playing the guitar and video games. 

This boy who will one day change the world. Whether that world is "only" the family he chooses to have or the entire world, is yet to be determined but I know he's changed mine. Man, has he changed mine. And I am so, so grateful for that. 

Happy 9 years, Trysten Zachary.