Nine Lives

Sometimes I feel like a cat.  You know, how they're supposed to have nine lives? I think back on parts of my life and it seems like so different from how my life is now that it's almost like a totally different life.  There was the life I lived in High School, part of a family that doesn't even exist anymore, the life in college, the life of a recent college grad working in downtown Columbus,  the life in grad school, the one in the apartment in Columbus with Evan, the life Evan and I had before we had kids--just the dogs--in our first house, the life of a new mom, trying to balance a baby and a job, the life of a stay at home mom of one, with another on the way, then the life of a stay at home mom with two kids, babysitting and teaching online, the life of a mother of 3, again trying to balance work and family with a 4th on the way--each stage seems so different when I look back on it.  Evan and I laugh all the time about how EASY having two kids was!  The fact that we ever were flustered or overwhelmed seems like a joke.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that last weekend was Caden's 9th birthday party.  Being 9, he's getting to old for the kind of parties we had for him as a
little kid.  We were ready to step it up.  We were ready for The Sleepover.  I was nervous.  This was a big step for us.  First because Caden won't sleep when he's by himself, let alone with there are other kids there to keep him busy, but also because Caden can get to be a bit much.  I was really worried that around 9 pm, the other kids were going to have had their fill and be ready to go--and we'd still have HOURS to go.  But it went pretty well.  I had to go downstairs and talk to Caden only once about being what Vince calls a "jerk", but then he seemed to shape up.

Caiden, Lucas and Caden

It's hard to do all the "first time" stuff with Caden.  He's such a special case that the "normal" kid things, like sleepovers, become  a much bigger deal than they would be for say, Ellie.  I'm always surprised how difficult taking the next step is, whether it be signing up for preschool or school, starting to have friend birthday parties, go to friends birthday parties, all the normal growing up stuff. When I look back on it, it's SO not a big deal, but doing it for the first time with Caden--it's always a "thing".   Like soccer.  When we signed Caden up for soccer when he was in preschool, it was a HUGE thing.  We told all the grandparents to come watch him.  We ALL went to his games.  It was a BIG DEAL. Now Vince is signing up.  I did it online, threw the dates on the calendar and haven't really thought about it since.  Just like I said before, it's like it was a different life when peewee soccer was something that occupied my thoughts and life in such a big way.  Caden has a big responsibility being the first.  It's his job to help us through all the "firsts"  so when it's time for Olivia, we're finally ready.  I know it seems like all these firsts are just something we have to get through with him, but they're also so much more special than they are with the other kids.  That's the perk of being the oldest--it's all new and fun.   Caden took a music class that I never had the time to do with the other kids.  Caden took Karate that I can't seem to juggle with everything else we're doing to sign Vince up.  Living it now seems like just another day, but someday, and it probably won't even be that long, all this will be just part of another one of those lives I was talking about. The life where I was the mother of 4 little kids.  I'll miss that when it's gone, because one of these lives will be my last-and if I had to put money on it, I'd say it's the one where I'm Mother of 4 Teenagers.

We tried Family Reading Night.  Olivia wanted Ellie to read to her.  She didn't sit still long but LOVED being held by her sister. (This is what Olivia looks like when she smiles.  I realize most people who have met her probably don't know what this looks like.)