TEN

The other night, while snuggling with my TEN YEAR OLD at bedtime, I was reminded of those early days of motherhood. I was a new mother with a newborn baby, and no idea what to do. I was exhausted from the constant sitting up every 2 hours at night (or more frequently, usually) to nurse this new creature. Even with the bassinet right next to the bed, and John handing me the baby (I had a c-section and leaning, bending and twisting were still painful), it was exhausting, frustrating, and not working for us. That one night when Owen and I fell asleep together after nursing was a huge turning point in my relationship as a mother, and the start of our snuggling and co-sleeping. Life suddenly got easier, and with small steps, I gained confidence in my path as a mother.
Owen no longer wakes up every few hours (he sleeps through the night ;-), can easily fall asleep on his own and is amazingly independent and creative.
But - I am so thankful that even at ten, my sweet guy still likes to snuggle to sleep every night.

Owen's party theme this year was - Junkyard Wars. The kids have become enamored of the show - it really is too much fun - and decided it would be good for a party. Although we have to remember that those people are adults, who concieveably know how to use power tools well, and they get two whole days to do their stuff.

Well, we had a 4 hour party, and the kids went to town. It was mostly about demolition, which is probably the most fun anyway, but there were a few creations that made it to the end of the party (and the kids kept on creating until 9 pm that night!)

Here is the beauty that was the tool collection to start:

The workstation, all neat and clean:

Here they go!

John has infinite patience with this kind of thing. Okay, this *IS* his kind of thing.

They took apart computers, keyboards, cellphones, dashboards (instrument cluster), mouse, car radio, DVD player, and an old TV.

Even the little sisters joined in, and had much fun.

And I took way too many pics of the cake as usual, but it was way too cool!!! (in case you can't tell, it is a cut-away of a computer tower - look at the amazing details). John is, as usual, the artist du jour.

Back to work after cake and snacks - smashing up a TV.

John explaining about the TV parts:

M's creation:

A in her toolbelt with tools:

D and C in toolbelts with tools:

M in toolbelt:

And Owen got a ton of wonderful gifts!