Special Birthday for a Special 11 Year Old

Sometimes I am unable to wrap my brain around motherhood. The ups, the down, the ins, the outs. Occasionally it is like I am in someone else's body. Blissfully happy, but tortured by the never ending list of things to do. I pinch myself as if I am going to wake up from this dream. The ultimate dream come true...a mother of three happy, healthy children.

Noah recently turned 11 and is beginning juvenescence. It seems that he is unsure if he wants to be a little boy or adolescent. I am right there with him. There are days that I look at him like he is an alien spawn from some unknown planet (ironic, as he was an alien for living art in his last elementary art show--picture below). Other times I want to squeeze him and never let go. Funny, as I type, I am believing he probably thinks the same of me. You know, because when you become a certain age, your parents no longer know what's best.

On April 30th, the boy turned 11. He and I had a special date. A mother and son date with a good friend and her oldest son. We dressed the boy's up and introduced them to some big kid stuff. It was a sunny day with a peaceful ride to Seneca Lake. (I enjoyed my adult time, too!) We stopped at a beautiful castle for brunch. The boys enjoyed the 3 room buffet of food. They each had Shirley Temple's - big deal ya' know! They were very well behaved, with their napkins on their laps and using their manners. So not like our tables at home were we constantly have to remind them!

From the castle we traveled to Rochester to see Wicked. After seeing the show in January, I knew that Noah and Andrew would love it. We were not disappointed. The theater, the sets, the costumes, the orchestra, and yes, even the singing seemed to impress. Noah cracked me up as he was keeping beat with the orchestra. He didn't even realize that he was doing it. A bit of a distraction for the three of us with him, but his band teacher would have been proud. A stop for some ice cream on the way home with some motherly torture of making the boys converse with us during the car ride. We decided no video games, they had to discuss their highs of the day. Isn't it great to be a Mom where you can do evil things like this?!

Noah is the orange alien. His good friend Anthony is the grey guy.

And, their alien pods...ART - an expression of oneself.

I swear I will never question him! I was a weird art student once, too.

I melted crayons, splattered them on paper, and won awards.

Perhaps I should change this whole post - his weirdness is my fault, isn't it?!!