San Diego, revisited

My cute backpack turned 5! We had his birthday party at FunWorks the day before Mother's Day. We played and pizza with just a few of his friends. FunWorks is loud and crazy, but we picked a good time, 10 a.m., so there wasn't a huge crowd. The cousins weren't able to join us but Rowan's best friend from preschool was able to come . . . her birthday party was at the Bowling alley down the street at 1 p.m. so it worked out to be a party kind of day for the birthday boy. Rowan had a blast!

My parents took a trip with Therin to Disneyland during the summer before he started Kindergarten and they took a trip with Rowan earlier this week. They left early Sunday morning, just the three of them and arrived in Legoland at 1:15 ish. So after their 7 hour car trip they played there for about 4 hours and went to their hotel to crash. They went to Legoland again on Monday, SanDiego Wild Animal Park on Tuesday, and SeaWorld on Wednesday. They got back into town about noon today. I missed Rowan but I'm so glad that my Mom & Dad got to spend time with him. I'm glad that Rowan got to talk without having to compete with his siblings for attention. As soon as I get pictures, I'm posting them! He was so excited and he called us every night. They're making a scrapbook of their adventure.

I sent Rowan with his birthday money. I was talking with my Mom on the phone and he walked up to her and handed her his money. "I'm buying the phone so I can talk to my Mommy." I laughed so hard. He bought me zebra socks and he tried so hard to keep it a secret. He told me on the phone each time we spoke that he had a "secret that he wasn't going to tell me about the zebra socks." He whispered to me often and sent me lots of phone kisses. What I noticed most over the phone was how very little he sounds. I know that sounds wierd but he's growing up so fast and I ask him to take responsibility for so many things and expect so much that I forget that he's still just a very little boy. Still my baby. I'm not saying that I want him to grow up fast, but if I don't encourage him to try to do things that might be difficult for him then he won't know a sense of accomplishment. I forced him to try and buckle his own seatbelt for months before he could actually do it. "You try once and then I'll help." Twice, three times, five times, then one day; "Mommy, I did it! I buckled myself!" Somedays he still has a hard time buckling but if he tries first I help him. But that little voice on the phone made me want to just scoop him up and take care of him but I've got to let him go be his own little person. He had a great time doing it this week too! Ah, growing pains. Does that mean I'm growing up a little too?