Will turned 18!

I feel like the worst blogger.  It has been over a month since I posted.  Kate had a birthday.  Will had a birthday.  Harry "graduated" from 8th grade.  Father's Day happened.  This is the stuff I usually blog about.

I have no real excuse for my lack of blogging.  Yes life is full but it always is.  Every time I sit down to finish  a post (I have several half finished posts), I find something better to do!  It's true.  I am beginning to wonder if my blogging days are coming to an end.

I started writing this post on Will's birthday (a week ago) but am just finishing it now.

Today is Will's 18th Birthday!  When I started this blog, he was just nine years old. I really cannot believe how quickly it has gone by.   Last Saturday night, we took some of his friends out to dinner to celebrate.  Of course, I had to get some photos before we left.

And just so you can see what I have to deal with when trying to get photos....

Will and his girlfriend, Elizabeth.  

Will and his friends sat at one table (two or three of his good guy friends were out of town:(

Kate, Harry, Dave and I sat at a separate table.

Will does NOT like to be the center of attention. He was trying to be a good sport.



Elizabeth, Will, Caroline

After dinner, the kids came over to have cake and hang out.

Kate and I made the cake.  It was dark chocolate with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  It was delicious BUT the frosting was not as thick as I would have liked.  I followed the recipe to the t and refrigerated it for hours.

Elizabeth, Will and Tori

Will has an awesome group of friends.  They have a lot of fun together and they stay out of trouble.

On the actual day of Will's birthday (june 22), I got his birthday morning doughnuts and we went out to Pappasito's for fajitas.  Then we gave him presents.

Although I loved seeing Will with his friends, this birthday was like a sucker punch to my gut.  I have never been one of those parents to wish my kids would stay little forever.  Generally, I have really enjoyed watching them grow up and watching our relationship evolve over time.  Truth be told, I am a better Mom to kids once they are out of the baby/toddler stage.  I have made a conscious effort to try to enjoy each stage but as I looked over at Will at dinner with his friends, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  His childhood is over.  This overwhelming feeling of sadness came over me and it was completely out of nowhere.  I was not anticipating it and it is even hard for me to articulate.

When Will was an infant, he was REALLY colicky.  He was the cutest baby but he was a challenge.  Dave would come home from work and I would say, "Guess what Will did today?"  He would ALWAYS say "Has he filled out his college applications yet?"  Every single day for probably 3 years Dave would ask that.  It was our little private joke about how slow and long the baby days were.  Well, guess what?  He is filling out those college applications now.  And guess what? I feel like it happened overnight.  I really do.

I sat in that restaurant looking at him and I saw all those baby/toddler/kindergarten/littleleague/middleschool moments flash before my eyes.

I  feel like a book I loved reading ended way too soon.  I know I still have many more memories with Will but I feel like I want to hit the rewind button but I can't.  It won't work.  Dave and I have worked really hard to instill values into Will and raise him to be a compassionate human being and he is.  We are SO proud of who he is.  He is honest, intelligent, a volunteer, a good friend and brother, generous, thoughtful and funny.  He has amazing faith and is a leader at his school.  He ALWAYS ask how my day was. ALWAYS!

One more little anecdote... On Will's first birthday, Dave gave me a gorgeous chunky gold charm bracelet from Tiffany's.  It was a thoughtful and extravagant gift and it was completely unexpected.  When Dave gave me the bracelet, he said, "We made it through the first year."  It was a celebration as the first year of Will's life was very difficult on our family. I left my career.  Dave and Will had serious surgeries.  Dave's Mom passed away.  Looking back, I probably had some post part depression (but I did not recognize it at the time). It was HARD.  I looked at that charm bracelet the other day full of charms and memories of the last 18 years.  It almost made me cry.  That was such an awesome gift from Dave.

Happy Birthday Will.   We made it.  I know you will do amazing things with your life. I look forward to the next chapters.

P.S. Kate and Harry leave for Camp Utopia tomorrow.  So, it is my goal to post every day this week to catch up.  Be sure to check back all week.

And I have to share these two fabulous dresses that are 50% right now (use code WEEKEND50).  I LOVE them both so much and I have a hard time finding dresses to fit me well.

Pink Dress

This dress runs a little big.  You can size down if between sizes.  

Striped Dress

You cannot tell from the photo but the stripes are pink:)

will is 17!

Will turned 17 exactly 2 weeks ago.  I feel bad about not doing a birthday post earlier but I didn't for 2 reasons.  One is we barely saw him on his birthday and the other is that I think I am a bit in denial that I really have a 17 year old. (I've also been super busy working on some projects)

Will's birthday was the day after we got back from our family vacation.  Being a normal 17 year old, he wanted to hang out with his friends because he had hung out a whole week with us!  So, we went to church together and got his favorite kolaches but then he hung out with friends.  I have to admit, I was a bit sad/sour about that.  I totally get it but I wanted to do a family dinner or something.  Anyway, when Will got home that night he was kind of bummed.  He said that although he had fun with this friends, he wished he had spent the time with us.  He said he realizes he only has another 2 years at home and he wasted a birthday.  I told him it was not wasted and we'd have a family dinner that week (which we did the night before they left for camp).  It is hard to have family dinner (the whole family) in the summer because of Kate's gymnastics training and Will's work.

(this photo was Kate's idea:)

Will is such a neat kid.  He is spiritual and respectful.  He is very intelligent but has to work pretty hard at his current school.  Organization does not come naturally to him but he has worked so hard to be organized in high school (color coded calendar, study schedules and folders).  I am really proud of that. Not only does Will work all year as a lifeguard but he is also really involved at school. He is on swim team and water polo (was a captain on JV this year).  He is in the National Honor Society and several other clubs too.  He is also a freshmen retreat leader and part of a select core who actually plan the retreat.  Being a freshmen retreat leader at his school is a huge commitment and honor.  You have to apply and it is mostly seniors who are leaders. Will was selected as a junior. He has worked all year this year on it (the retreat happens in November) and has a weekend retreat next month for the leaders.

Will is also goofy and funny.  He is always asking how my day was.  He is confident (sometimes too much) and outgoing.  One of my favorite things about Will is that he really doesn't let things get to him.  He lets things roll off his back.  I could get really, really mad at him and yell and a few minutes later he says sorry and it is done.  He also does not let other people's criticism or insults bother him.  He shrugs it all off.  And because of all that he is usually in a good mood and is pretty even tempered.

He is an amazing volunteer.  His school has required volunteer hours and so does NHS.  But Will goes far above and beyond any required volunteer hours (even if he doesn't record them all!). He just likes volunteering and he is good at it too.  I always get tremendous feedback from the adults where he volunteers.  In fact, this summer he was supposed to work during our parish VBS.  Will switched his shifts so that he could volunteer instead.  I got the most amazing e-mail from a woman who was working at VBS complimenting both Will and Harry's leadership skills and telling me how kind and helpful and mature they both were.  Another Mom told me how much they stood out in a sea of uninspired teen volunteers because they were enthusiastic and really got the job done.  What Mom does not love to hear that stuff about her children?!

I always say that my kids are not perfect.  And Will is no exception.  But so far, he has made the teen years easy for us.  He is honest and respectful.  He is a rule follower and has a good moral compass.  I expect he'll make some mistakes but so far, he has been a joy to parent.

A few months ago, I was cleaning out a desk and I found this letter.  I wrote it to Will when he was just 22 months old.  I had not remembered writing it so it was such a gift to find. I read it to Will and he loved hearing it (and asked me to read it again).  This letter was not a birthday letter or anything special.  It was just me writing about Will when he was 22 months old.   I wrote about how he loved doughnut holes and the zoo.  I wrote about his favorite shows and books and things to play. What is interesting though is how accurate it is.  I wrote "You love water (although you call it "agua").  You run to hoses, sprinklers, puddles and water fountains.  I won't be surprised a bit if you are a great swimmer." And here 15 years later he is a swimmer!  there were so many other great things in the letter.  I encourage all of you Moms to take a few moments no matter how old your kids are and write them a letter like this.  Mine was on plain white lined paper.  It was not fancy at all. and it was just two pages long. It had mistakes but it was so full of love! I simply wrote about who Will was and what he meant to me. I know that he will cherish it forever and he will be able to look back on it when he has kids and see what he was like as a toddler.

So, my Will is growing up.  And I am so proud of who is is growing up to be.  I love you, Will!

And just to show you how much he's changed, this is the first photo ever of Will on this blog (almost 8 years ago).

We've all aged a bit!

P.S.  About the clothes.  I will probably not be listing them until the last week of July or beginning of August.  Some things have come up around our house that required my immediate attention so I have not had time to get all the photographs done and the listings done. It is super time consuming. And we have some out of town guests coming to visit so I had to put the clothes away for a few weeks.  I apologize for the delay but will get back to it in a few weeks.