I Literally Can’t (El)even.

joshua is 11
Joshua’s last photo as a 10-year-old. We took it last night before bed.

Welp, kids, I have an 11-year-old. An official tween! And I am freaking out JUST A LITTLE BIT. How is this possible? I still feel like I should be 26, and like he should be a baby. I still miss his babyhood, what for me was a good almost three years of carefree parenting.

But my firstborn is 11, and despite my sadness about him growing up SO fast, I am thankful. SO thankful for this kid. He has taught me a lot over the years. He made me a mom, and being his mom makes me a  better person every day.

The very first thing he taught me was to be thankful in all things. He taught me perspective at his birth, which was fairly harrowing. Bobby and I still joke that it was both the worst and the best day of our lives. But the truth is, it was the best. Because at the END of the day, we got a perfect baby boy, a gift from God greater than we could ever hope or imagine! And I managed to survive as well. We got a family of three…the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the birth experience is inconsequential. We learned what really matters from that baby boy that day.

Joshua has taught me the joy in little things, he’s taught me patience, he’s taught me about loving others well, and he’s taught me to be concerned about doing the right thing (which I hope I taught him first, ha ha) and not  being too hasty in my actions.

He’s not perfect, I know that. Every day Bobby and I try to help him work on the areas of his character he needs to work on (*cough*laziness*cough), but he is perfect for us. We are so proud of him, so blessed to be his parents, and we can’t wait to see what God has for his future, and to enjoy every stage with him as much as we enjoyed his sweet babyhood.

Happy Birthday, Joshua Kenneth! I love you so much!

Joshua 11
FIrst pic as an 11-year-old!

 

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Word Nerds!

spellers

Saturday, Joshua and Sophie were BOTH in our district Spelling Bee. Last year they both qualified, also, but Joshua did not want to do it, and we didn’t make him. This year, however, he was ready, but he did NOT want to win. He was like, terrified of getting to the final round where he would compete against 6th-8th graders as well as his own 5th grade winners. Sophie, however, was in it to win it! We studied pretty hard. I even made Joshua study because I told him he HAD to do his best, but I gotta be honest – the 5th grade words were ridiculously hard!

Anyway. Before we left for the big Bee, we had to do a family coin toss. Why? You ask.

Because both kids wanted Daddy to come with them in the spelling room. We had to flip a coin to see which would claim the Daddy prize and which would get stuck with boring old Mom.

Sophie lost. And let me be clear, LOSING = me accompanying her to the 2nd grade spelling bee.

Harumph.

Despite her handicap of getting stuck with moi, Sophie spelled her heart out and came in 4th place out of 20 spellers! She was SO excited, and I was SO proud. She spelled with confidence and made it through 18 rounds before she got out!

Sophie 4th place

Joshua and Bobby fared well in the 5th grade room, but not AS well as Sophie. The details are a little fuzzy, because when I asked how he did, they could only come up with “I was in the top 10 but not the top 5.” I had to laugh! We are so proud of Joshua for overcoming the fear that kept him out of the spelling bee last year!

joshua is cool

And of course, the same week of the spelling bee, both kids also qualified for the district speech meet. Which means…another early Saturday morning coin-toss is in our future.

I sure do love my little Word Nerds! Even though they love Daddy more.

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The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far, Is All I’m Sayin’

This weekend we went on a little family road trip/mini vacay and man! Was it fun. I promise to tell you all about it in approximately one week’s time, but to tide you over, here is an anecdote.

We had breakfast at Bob Evans on Sunday, and Joshua busied himself by doing a little Mad Libs-type story on the kids’ menu. Which he then proudly read to us. And we all laughed like 10-year-old boys, even though only one of us was, in fact, a 10-year-old boy. Allow me to present Joshua’s literary masterpiece:

Joshua Mad Lib

And that’s not all Joshua accomplished this weekend: here’s another gem that will love in the internet forever:

My son, ladies and gentlemen! I could not be more proud!

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