My son is in the double digits

Benjamin turned ten years old earlier this month, and we celebrated hard this year to commemorate it.  It IS a big milestone in our family, after all! I remember being pregnant with him, the delivery, and then getting to hold him in my arms for the first time. All life-changing experiences.

He was such a good baby, and so good playing on his own with his toys. He could sit and play quietly for hours. I never had to move breakable things away from him because he never touched them. No meant no, and he was content with the things I did let him do.

Now ten years later, I can only wonder how that little baby turned into the boy I see today. He spends hours doing origami, folding all kinds of shapes and cubes and flying objects. He makes all kinds of spit ball and rubber band launchers, ninja stars, and dart guns out of paper, chopsticks, tape, and rubber bands. He loves to read, loves his longboard and his bike, loves to go to the pool, and is always on the trampoline with his sisters. He is so smart and math seems to come so easily to him. Sometimes his boy qualities get him in trouble, like when he makes it seem like he said something different than he did or when he makes a mess and never wants to clean it up. But he is always trying to please B and I and do what's right. He is such a good kid. We love you, Ben, and pray God's blessings are always present in your life. May you be a light for Him in this dark world, and never take your eyes off Him.

On Ben's birthday, we let him open his presents (he told me each gift was just what he wanted), went out for pizza, did a quick photo shoot in the desert with his ten balloons, had dessert at Whole Foods, and went for an evening swim in the pool. We all had so much fun helping him celebrate. Now he is in the double digits, and soon he will be a tween....sigh...I'm getting a little scared just thinking about it.

I have a funny story about those balloons. I was picking them up at Fred Meyer the morning of Ben's birthday, and as I was putting them in the trunk, one of them went over the trunk lid and touched the hot car and popped. I heard the loudest, heartiest laugh behind me! I turned around, and there was an old guy laughing his head off in his car across the street. It was odd, but I guess I'm glad I could give him such a good laugh! ;) It probably made his day. I didn't want to go back in, so I went home with nine balloons. We popped two more on bushes as we were taking pictures, so we ended up releasing seven balloons into the sky at the end of it all. Oh well, gotta roll with the punches, right?

xoxo,
Tanya