Happy 8th Birthday

Ah, another year passed, another year older. My baby is 8. On this day, eight years ago, he entered our lives kicking and screaming, yet we decided to keep him.

This year has definitely been a fun and exhausting one! It sure is different raising a boy than it is a girl. Whereas Riley would be content reading or coloring, Jeremy wants to be active. For Christmas, Santa brought him a hockey net, which has taken residence in our front room. So every morning, after Riley heads off to school, J and I play indoor hockey with our mini sticks. (Riley accidentally broke one of the sticks a few months ago, and you would have thought Jeremy broke a bone with how he screamed.)

Speaking of hockey, he enjoyed playing for an in-house team this fall/winter, and the entire family had so much fun. The highlight of his season was getting to play a scrimmage game at the Rockford Ice Hogs arena and slapping the hands of the players! He's really excelling in hockey and soccer--it will be a difficult time when we have to choose.

As for school, again, he's doing quite well. He's not so much into reading, but he's a strong reader and does very well in math. I've helped in his class several times this year, and his teacher only has the best things to say about him. I do laugh, though, because the class has nicknamed him "Bacon Boy" for his love of all things bacon. In fact, when he does his math and it asks for units for the problems, Jeremy usually writes "bacon." He has his first admirer in the class--McKenna is a big fan of Jeremy. We tease him about her, but he's asked us to not to that, so we try not to give him such a hard time.

Just like last year, Riley was trying to convince Jeremy that he wasn't officially 8 until the afternoon, since that's when he was born. I laughed when I realized she did the same thing last year. But she did write on her birthday card to him "From your loving sister, AKA Riley." You know, in case he didn't know which loving sister.

We celebrated with a birthday weekend with his party yesterday at Brunswick with 9 other friends (including his sister), and then today we went over to Papa and Nana's to celebrate with Uncle D and Jack. The weather cooperated, so we were able to enjoy some hockey outside. He received many Legos, the Mighty Ducks DVDs, money, and some bacon items. I believe it was a pretty good birthday weekend for him.

What else can I say about my baby boy? Each year that passes makes me happy and sad; I'm happy because I love seeing the person he's becoming, but I'm sad because it marks one more year that's passed. I love having a son and all that he represents--there's just a special bond between a boy and his mom. I cannot wait to see what great things will happen for him this next year.

I love you so much, my favorite little guy. Happy birthday, sunshine.

And now for Jeremy through the years:

At the hospital

3 months

6 months

9 months

1 year old

18 months

2 years old

2.5 years old

3 years old (and sick)

3.5 years old

4 years old

 

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old and wearing his birthday party crown

 

8 years old waiting for his birthday bacon

 

 

 

 

2013 Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? We went on a family vacation and took the kids to Canada. It was such a wonderful experience and I know it will be one the kids will never forget.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Like I said last year, I don't really keep them. I'm not really sure what to aim for during the upcoming year either.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope. It was pretty baby-free.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, one of my parents' good friends passed in November.

5. What places did you visit? As mentioned earlier, we took the family to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Toronto for a couple of days in August.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? I would love for the husband to have full-time employment again.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Nothing really stands out.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I landed 2 freelancing gigs when I became proactive and found online postings about jobs. I had been without any freelancing jobs in almost a year, so it was hard to get back in the swing of things and balance life and work again.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not sticking with my goal of getting myself better organized and purging the house. I had high hopes and lasted a couple of weeks, but then the freelancing jobs took over, and I found that I didn't have a lot of extra time, and unfortunately the clutter piled up.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? The entire family got sick one day after the next right after Thanksgiving. Other than that, we were good.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Our vacation, hands down.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My husband. He was let go from two jobs this year, and I know it was a kick to his ego, but he's prevailed and found another contracting job that he loves. Unfortunately the contract is up in February, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that 2014 is the year of landing a secure job.And Riley's picture of the State of Liberty was in the Highlights magazine for its June 2013 issue. She received a lot of recognition and was even in the local newspaper and given an award through the village.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Nobody in particular, but I still get passionate about our children's education and cannot understand why people don't do more for the schools.

14. Where did most of your money go? Vacation.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? On our vacation, we were able to see Dave Bolland with the players' Stanley Cup and his parade through downtown Toronto, and then the following day we saw the second Stanley Cup. Definitely a highlight that we won't soon forget.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Safe and Sound by Capital Cities because the Hawks played it at their rally over the summer.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier.My family means the world to me, and they make me so happy.

b) thinner or fatter? The same. I did still run when it was warm out and ran another 5K, this time in June, and I did it faster than my previous one. I'm hoping to get the husband to run another one with me this year.

c) richer or poorer? Poorer. Mainly because the husband was unemployed for several months.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Making more of an effort in doing things that are important to my family.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying that we cannot afford certain things.

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2013? We celebrated the weekend before Christmas with my brother and his family at their new house, on Christmas day it was the four of us and my parents, and the weekend after Christmas we were up in Green Bay celebrating with the husband's family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2013? I'm still madly in love with the husband.

22. What was your favorite TV program?  Chicago Fire and The New Girl. And I like mindless entertainment on Bravo..

23. What did you do for your birthday in 2013? I can't remember what I did two days ago, let alone what happened almost eight months ago.

24. What was the best book you read? I surpassed my goal, and I read more than 100 books this year. I've really enjoyed the new adult market, and love pretty much anything by Colleen Hoover. I also loved Sarah Jio's two books she published this year, The Last Camellia and Morning Glory.
25. What did you want and get? I wanted to attend a hockey game, and my dad won tickets at one of the blood drives, so my brother and I went the day before my birthday.

26. What did you want and not get? Phil to land a full-time job.

27. What was your favorite film of this year? I have a hard time sitting through movies, but I did go with the kids to see Despicable Me 2, which was hilarious. Monsters University was pretty good, too. Ten Years was another good one, but anything with Channing Tatum works for me.

28. Did you make some new friends this year? Yes, through Jeremy's hockey I've gotten to know some really nice families.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Having a maid

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013? Casually comfortable.

31. What kept you sane? Gatherings with good friends and hockey. Not necessarily together.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Duncan Keith. I kept asking to have him for my birthday, but maybe next year!

33. What political issue stirred you the most? Gay marriage. I'm glad that the Illinois government finally got their act together to allow marriage rights for them.

34. Who did you miss? I miss spending quality time with the husband. Even though we're under the same roof, I tend to work in the evenings after the kids go to bed, which doesn't allow for a lot of quality time. It's hard to balance everything sometimes, and I miss connecting with him.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013. It's important to not be complacent and to want a better life. Striving for more can be challenging, but you'll come out a better person in the end.