8 is great

8 years ago a certain someone was evacuated from my body.  Every child's birthday brings back visceral memories of their introduction to the world.  So many feelings and emotions--the miserable pregnancy, intense delivery, spicy overcooked baby smells (he was 11 days late), coming home to discover our living room ceiling had collapsed in our absence.

From the get go Linus has made me work a little harder and that's okay.

Linus age 8.

           Newborn baby Linus
 Oh, my heart.  Those little hands.

Linus woke up excited today.  I had terminated his ipad/electronic gaming privileges for several weeks with restoration promised on his birthday.  Linus indulged me and went to mass wearing his school uniform to help me talk to people about the IB program during coffee and donuts.  He spent most of the afternoon having tons of screen time, play board games, and playing outside.

Eileen had a soccer game and scored her very first goal!

In the evening, my family came over to celebrate.  It was very very fancy -- macaroni and cheese with honey crisp apples on the side.  It always feels weird to invite people over to eat kid food. Eileen of course can't eat macaroni and cheese.  I had to mix and match some boxes to make it work for her.

C'mon Annie's!  Lets see you go vegan AND gluten-free.  It was actually pretty good.  The sauce uses pumpkin so it had a nice fall flavor.  Once you get over it not tasting like cheese, it's pretty tasty in its own right.

Dessert also proved tricky.  Linus wanted Graveyard Dirt.   He was very specific.  I just like that he remembers some of the fun stuff I have done in the past.

Eileen of course can't have milk chocolate, oreos, milano cookies, or pudding.  Yesterday, I altered our old family cookie recipe and made gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free cookies.  It was definitely harder to roll out, but the taste while different, was really good.

Eileen loved helping me.  She did an amazing job of helping me.  Eileen helped me mix food coloring and frosted half the cookies with no help from me.  It was a good reminder that I need to let go a little bit more and let the kids try.


Linus's favorite birthday present was a "practice knife," a pocket knife that stays with an adult.  He of course used it to open every present.  We also got him an Extraordinaire Design Studio set and smaller buildings design set.  I may have to borrow it for my students.....

                                             Wry smile, a little mischievous, and very happy.

Happy Birthday Linus!