Nine is fine

 

Last week Reed turned nine and yes, nine is fine...but I'm not looking forward to Reed turning 10 next year. My kids are getting too old too fast. In fact, two days before Reed's birthday I was at my doctor's appt and another woman in the office asked how old my kids were and I told her 8, 6 and 3 because I couldn't bear the thought I saying my boy was almost 9.

With Reed's birthday coming 2 weeks before my due date I knew two things: I had to plan ahead and it had to be low key.

As part of the celebration a few weeks prior to Reed's birthday, Sam took the boys to the Ripley's Believe or Not Museum in Baltimore. They had a great time and came home with lots of gross/interesting information but no pictures. (I guess that's my thing, not Sam's)

Reed's actual birthday was on a Sunday, so we had most of the celebration--which we called "Reed Rules the Day"--on Saturday.

We started the day with Reed's choice of breakfast. I offered him the world but junky cereal always wins. He picked out two to make sure their was a non-chocolate option to include me.

Max approved of the selection and actually decided to enjoy them as a mix. Yum!

Since it was "Reed Rules the Day" we didn't waste anytime getting to the presents. We were really on the ball so he got to open it right from the Amazon box.  He got the Wii Dance game he was hoping for.

He was even more excited about the Hex Bug Hive and 100 Hexbug batteries he had been wishing for too.

Max was plenty excited about the gifts too.

Next on the agenda was breaking in the new Wii Dance game. Reed's PE class at school sometimes plays Wii Dance so he was familiar with "Eye of the Tiger", which was the song Reed was looking forward to the most.

I love watching them playing all together. Ruby "wins" every round---at least that's what they tell her. It works for now and everyone stays happy. She's getting a little too smart for this trick so they've had to get creative. "Oh, look you won again. You got the number 3 next to your icon because you're 3...oh look at ours...we only got 1 and 2. We're only tiny babies."                                                                      

Sam got in on the action too.

 

  

I did my best, but Wii Dance is surprisingly difficult when you are 8 1/2 months pregnant. Sam didn't get any pictures of me trying, but he did get one as we were leaving for our next "Reed Rules the Day" activity and it's probably better that way.

  

Per Reed's request, we went to IHOP for lunch. He was just a little bit thrilled about being there.

Actually, nobody complained about the choice. I don't think I've ever been out to eat and seen every plate licked clean.  I think it helped that we didn't make it to lunch until a little after 2:00.  We were all starving.

We saved Reed's "cake" for his actual birthday on Sunday. I don't know if Reed was trying to make things easy for me, or if he didn't trust my cake making abilities, but he said what he really wanted was a big cookie cake from Walmart. In my current condition, I was more than willing to oblige...even to his request to write his own name in frosting.

They love him.

And his cookie too.

Reed and Max are the best of friends. These pictures are so typical of their interactions. First discussing and negotiating all of the options for splitting up the remaining cookie...

...and then being silly enjoying their spoils.

Another thing that is sooo Reed is the constant need to be creative. I don't think I could think of word that better describes Reed than creativity. One of the things that Reed frequently requests is to be able to make "own ingredient cookies".  He doesn't want to follow any kind of recipe and I'm not big on wasting ingredients so I don't unusually let him, but for his birthday I told him to go for it. He was thrilled with his freedom in the kitchen. For him it wasn't so much about the cooking as it was able being able to be creative and in charge--his two favorite things.

Me and my boy. I like how my belly nearly eclipses my 9 year-old- boy!

Possibly our last family photo as a family of 5.

As planned, this was a more low key birthday, but I still think Reed felt loved and celebrated. Happy Birthday my NINE-year-old boy!! We love you Reedy-o.