Olivia:  I’m going on a field trip tomorrow!

Me:  Where are you going?

Livi:  To a chocolate factory.  Mmm, chocolate!

Me:  What chocolate factory?

Livi:  Just kidding.  We’re going to the zoo.

Me:  You are?  I didn’t get a note or anything about that.

Livi:  Nah.  We’re not.  Just wishful thinking.  Oh, can we go to the store to get a cell phone for me?  I need to call all my friends to remind them about my sleepover that’s tomorrow.

Me:  What sleepover?!

Livi:  The one I invited all my friends to!

And the very next day, I was celebrating something else…

…the addition of another little boy into our family!

And they’ve been the best of friends ever since.  Happy birthday to my sweet boys, Cameron and Andrew!

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Parker has always reminded me a bit of Taylor as a baby, but seeing that picture where he looks exactly like Parker made me realize how much alike they really do look.

Even with a 6 year age difference, these 2 boys are best friends and completely adore each other.  Our sweet bookends.

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1)  Parker insisting that he pee standing up– but insisting that he use his little Elmo potty to do so.  It is quite a funny sight.

2)  Hearing Olivia’s friend who is over playing call her “Sis.”

3) Hearing Olivia say to Sawyer (jokingly), “Do you want me to give you a wedgie?”

4) Listening to Jared in his office laugh hysterically while watching The IT Crowd.

He is definitely still growing up way too fast, though.  Yesterday was a crazy day full of things like ballet, book fairs, hair cuts, and Andrew sticking a metal object in his ear at school and it going in too far.  Yeah.  I also spent a good part of the day online and on the phone getting our summer road trip plans finalized (more about that later).  Add to that the fact that the chicken for dinner still hadn’t thawed out enough for me to pound it into thin cutlets (and I hate thawing meat in the microwave; I think it makes it rubbery) and that we had to go straight from Cameron’s baseball practice to Taylor’s school play which didn’t get over till 8:15pm, so we decided to pick up some kids’ meals from Wendy’s.  Taylor eats his burger in all of 2 bites and says to me, “Mom, can you stop getting me a kid’s meal and start getting me an adult meal?  That burger was tiny.”

Then last night after his shower, he asks me if we have any deodorant he can have.  He said, “I think it’s time I started wearing it.”  He does spend a good 3 hours outside after school getting sweaty riding his bike or scooter and playing with his friends.  With summer and hot weather approaching, deodorant is probably not a bad idea.

He also is obsessed lately with the area between his upper lip and the bottom of his nose.  ”Mom, do you see the hair there?”  ”Yes, Taylor, it’s called peach fuzz.  Very blond, very scant peach fuzz.”  I will admit, though, that the area of skin there is darkening a bit.

I’m sure as Taylor goes through all the changes that come with puberty, Cameron will be right behind.  I was talking to Andrew’s teacher after school yesterday and Cameron said something about first graders.  She looked at him and said to me, “He’s really tall for a first grader.”  Cameron said, “Yep, I’m taller than even some third graders.”  And he is.  Poor Andrew said, “I know, I know.  He’s a lot taller than me.”

Changing subjects:  we had a kink thrown in our vacation/road trip plans because we had originally been planning on staying in Orange Beach on the Gulf coast for a couple of days but seeing as how dead animals and big balls of oil are now coming ashore, those plans had to change.  So we were trying to figure out yesterday what to do about that.  It took several hours to get it all worked out, cancel 2 hotel reservations, make 3 more hotel reservations, map out a different route, etc.  We decided after New Orleans/Slidell to head north to Corinth, Mississippi to see my brother Sean and his family.  Andrew read The Miracle Worker a few weeks ago and really enjoyed learning about Helen Keller.  ”Can you believe she lived until she was 99, Mom?”  Corinth is an hour away from her home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, so Andrew wants to try to go see her home.  There is also a park there with a train, carousel, roller coaster, etc., that sounds fun.  Since we are now going to head further north, we decided instead of going the southern route again to come home, we’ll go the northern route.  Nauvoo, Illinois is only an hour northeast of where that route takes us, so we are going to deter there and see some Church history sites.  The whole trip is going to be 66 hours/4200 miles.  Thank goodness that yesterday’s book fair was BOGO.  We will all need plenty of books and movies to help us keep a modicum of our sanity.

Yes, it is official.  My little boy is gone.  And left in his place is a moody, near-pubescent stranger who is almost as tall as me and now displays a rather sudden and sad disdain for his family.   He was gone for 5 hours today playing with friends, walked in the door and said “What’s for dinner?  I’m starving!”, downed his (now-cold since he came home almost 2 hours late) dinner and dessert, walked upstairs without another word, only to come down an hour later to tell me, “I’m starving.”

Please tell me that I will survive the teenage years.

Even though pretty much not a day passes where I don’t think “I am going to scream if someone says, ‘Mom!  Mom!  Mom!’ ONE MORE TIME” I really do enjoy being the center of their universe.  And that is quickly coming to an end.

We used to consider Andrew short.  Because compared to Taylor and Cameron, he is short.  Then we noticed yesterday at his class play that he isn’t short compared to his classmates.  He’s even taller than many of the boys in his class.  It’s just that Taylor is tall.  And Cameron?  Well, Cameron is a giant.  Seriously.  I tried to hold his hand the other day and the kid has man-hands.   Man-hands!  Our food bills have seriously gone through the roof in the last few months.  And it is only going to get worse.  We are going to have to take out a second mortgage just to feed these boys.

From Cameron:

My mom is special because she is nice.

I like it when my mom is happy.

She is best at cooking.

My mom has a pretty smile.  I like to make her smile by tickling.

My mom is as pretty as a flower.

From Sawyer:

How much does your mom weigh?    7 pounds.

How tall is your mom?      4 feet.

What does your mom do while you are at school?        Cleans the kitchen.

What kind of work does your mom do?      Clean up toys.

What does your mom like to watch?      Movies.

What does your mom always tell you?      A bedtime story.

When your mom goes shopping what does she like to buy?      Orange juice and milk.

What does your mom like to do when she plays?       Play guitar.

Sigh.

Thank heaven for books and their transportive abilities.

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