Halloween, J’s 10th Birthday, etc.

Family

Internet, it’s been a real doozy of a week.

In addition to the (self-inflicted) stress of the One Room Challenge, I’ve also been juggling the planning of the Home for the Holidays decor workshops which I’m so excited about. I don’t envy our chairwoman for it because it’s a big undertaking, and I’m only responsible for a teeny tiny part!

ARCHER KILLS MY PHONE

Anyway, then last week Archer tossed my iPhone into the microwave and promptly nuked it to death. Killed it dead, right there on the spot. And then he brought it to me saying “MOMMY! PHONE HOT! PHONE HOT!”

So there’s that. Thank goodness for Simon’s cousin who overnighted us one of their old phones. It saved the day.

JUDE AGES OVERNIGHT

Last Saturday was a blur of Jude’s basketball games followed by OU football. Simon had a cold and everyone was exhausted and cranky.  Then Sunday dawned bright and clear – Jude’s tenth birthday. TEN YEARS OLD. MY BABY. MY PREEMIE BABY. And naturally, I cried that day just like I do every single year (and it still surprises me – you think I’d have it figured out by now). Except this year, I cried for my Mom, because I knew that if she’d been here, she would’ve called me right at the time he was born, just like she always did. “You did such a great job. Remember how little he was? How scared we were?” Gosh I miss her. Every. Darn. Day.  I sobbed in the bedroom closet, which is totally my Place to Cry About Mom. It happens less and less than it did, but still. Nine months later and her clothes that I keep in there are starting to smell less and less like her. And I hate that.

I look at Jude, and I feel all the feels. How grateful I am. How in awe I am. How humbled I am as we tumble on headlong into adolescence, and how inadequate I feel to the task. I’m all the more aware of how much I need to fall to my knees to pray for guidance on this. The stakes feel so much higher as your kid grows up.

Anyway, on the day of his birthday, we lazed around until lunch, ate Chinese food for his lunch of choice, and then had a big family dinner at his favorite burger place that night, followed immediately with red velvet cake. #crimsonandcream  And then tonight (a week later), we’re having a big school friend birthday party. WHEE!

HALLOWEEN

In true Second Child Gets the Short End of the Stick fashion, I didn’t have a costume for Archer, so Jude and I went to the creepy Halloween store across from our neighborhood to survey the slim pickin’s on the night before. There, we discovered this gem which might also be the worst halloween costume ever (maybe that’s why it was still left there?). We left with a toddler Spiderman costume and a weird inflatable white puffy costume thing for Jude (who, incidentally, already had a panda head from Target to wear, but was feeling spendy thanks to birthday money in his pocket).

Halloween Morning dawned and Archer came downstairs where he promptly gasped in delight as if Santa himself had brought the costume down the chimney for him. SPIDERMAN. MY VERY OWN! And Internet, I had to pry it off his wee tiny body Wednesday night because he wore it for 24 hours straight. OBSESSED. I love it.

Jude’s costume still makes me laugh.

And this wee! tiny! spiderman! face!

Arch and his buddy Henry who he calls “Hermey.”

Oh time. Please slow down. Just a bit? Because these memories are so priceless and I want to make some more.

with love,
Rachel

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