The Best Christmas Present Ever

It's hard to believe, but my baby turned 6 years old on Monday. It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital asking the nurse if the two of us could go home. I didn't care that I had just delivered him less than an hour prior. I was a seasoned professional. A mom thrice over. I didn't have time for hospital stays away from my two other children. And I didn't wanna sleep in a hospital bed and eat their food. I wanted to take my baby and go home.

Buuuuut, the nurse quickly laid the smack down (do cool kids still say that? "Lay the smack down" ???). But I did manage to get us out of there a day early. Six years later and my little guy is all boy. All the time. 

He wasn't due until 6 January. But apparently he had other plans. So six days before Christmas in 2005, I got the best present ever. Owen Miles. 

You know it's some serious sleep when ur mouth is open

He was 7lbs 6oz and didn't even wait for the doctor to arrive before making his debut into the world. Admittedly, I waited far too long to go to the hospital to begin with. But I hate hospitals. And didn't wanna get there and have contractions for 8 hours. I wanted to get there and have a baby. And that's what I did - a few contractions and a single push later and baby number three was in the world. If only labor had been that quick and easy with my first.

So Monday was my monkey's sixth birthday.

He started the morning by busting through his door-o-streamers that I taped up for him. I thought he'd get a kick out of breaking throughout them the second he woke up.

And since he shares a room with Ethan (and Ari had slept in there the night before for a slumber/movie party), I left a note for E and Ari instructing them to go through the bathroom (which attaches to the boys' bedroom) if they wanted to exit the room prior to Owen waking up in order to preserve the integrity of the door-o-streamers (you like what I did there? …made it sound all sophisticated by using words like 'preserve' and 'integrity').

Then what did we do - you ask? Did I make him a huge breakfast? Nope. I intended to; my little guy loves bacon and pancakes (in that order). But he wanted pie (we celebrated Christmas the day before so we had plenty of pie), so naturally, I let the kid eat pie for breakfast. Don't judge me - it's what any good parent would've done. 

Then I baked his cake (he wanted a repeat of last year's monkey cake) along with some cupcakes. All the while, big sister Ana baked him a mini-monkey cake. 

Super cute - that girl.

As for dinner, I planned to make Owen his favorite (ribs, mac n' cheese, etc.) but that went just as well as my breakfast plan. He said he wanted, "Orange chichen (chicken) from Panda Express." Then he changed it to Golden Corral (which I was dreading because I hate buffets, just call me a food snob), then he wanted Chuck-e-Cheese, then he was just as confused as me and Seth and soon had no clue what he wanted. We showed him some local places online and he decided on Fat Daddy's Pizza. It has an arcade/game area along with a little pizza restaurant. The pizza was super yummy and the birthday boy schooled me in a game of air hockey.

From there we went ice skating, which was a first for all of us, except Seth. I swear, it seems as though he's been everywhere and done everything. I want to go to the North Pole, but guess what, Seth went every summer as a child. I wanna base jump off the Sears Tower, but guess what, Seth just did that last weekend. Okay, those are sliiiight exaggerations, but seriously, you know what I mean - it just seems like he's tried everything at least once. Wait…that didn't sound right…

Ice skating began with Owen getting on the ice and immediately wanting off. I asked him to just go around once with me and halfway through his first lap my little guy was hooked.

He loved it. The look and smile on his face was exactly what I live for. 

Check out that one-legged-crossed-foot-half-sit maneuver - I give 'im a solid '10'

As with most things, Ari quickly got the hang of it and after we swapped E's ice-skates out for a bigger size he was diggin' it too. 

Then, of course, we came home to cake (that Owen modified by adding a nose) and cupcakes and presents and trick candles that didn't work. 

And if you talk to Owen about what he can and cannot accomplish, he'll quickly tell you, "I can do that, I'm not twwwwwooooo, I'm SIX!"

But if you ask me, the kid doesn't look a day over 5 and a half. What can I say? He's got some good genes.

Happy Birthday to my bright-eyed, witty, rambunctious, beautiful baby boy.

Xo,

Lor