the mighty fine nine

liam is now nine.  he celebrated the last single-digit birthday he'll ever have on the 14th, and it's taken me this long to process it.  i've wondered how i should describe him in my annual birthday post, and while pondering, took a look back at what i've written in the past.  (his eighth birthday is here.  his seventh, here.  his sixth, here.  his fifth, here.  his fourth, here -- which is my favorite, because it includes a video of that sweet, chubby-cheeked little boy of ours blowing out his candles.)

and what i realized, after reading and remembering, is that he really hasn't changed that much in the last year.  those first few years of life move at lightning speed, with every day bringing new accomplishments and developments and achievements.  but from eight to nine, i think he's just been refining.  improving more in the areas of his interest (sports and math and reading) and learning to tolerate better those that are not (art and tying of shoes and eating vegetables.)  to be honest, aside from the move to his new school, what i wrote a year ago still, for the most part, applies today.  so what was i to really say?  and then, a brief event happened just yesterday between him and me and i immediately thought, you know, all i have to do is share this story.  it just summed him up perfectly, in a two-minute timeframe.

he and i had gotten home after school and he was eager to show me several of his pieces of work he had brought home.  (among my favorite: a worksheet about being perfect, as part of a lesson in language arts about how everyone makes mistakes.  one of the last questions was, "do you know anyone who is perfect?  if so, what makes them perfect?"  and his answer: "Jesus.  because He is the only person who has never sinned.")

after we went through his paperwork, i realized it was time to walk to the bus stop to pick up susanna.  "wait!" he said.  "i think i'll get a clipboard and bring some of my math homework to work on, since we don't know exactly when she'll be getting there."  after he had also grabbed a pencil, we started walking up the cul-de-sac.

and then, out of the blue, he says, "i'm so glad you're my mommy." i smiled, touched at the spontaneity of his statement.  "and i'm REALLY glad you met daddy.  because i think you both are awesome ... "he paused, laughing.  "and because if you hadn't met, well, there wouldn't be me!" 

and what a different world that would be -- a world without our sweet son, who is so well described by this story, in a myriad of sort of random ways that all tie together to make him, well, him.  he's thoughtful, and loving, and kind.  he loves and knows God and Jesus.   he's responsible and hard-working and smart.  and he's funny and goofy too.

he's our liam, and we are so proud to call him ours.  he's divine ... and he's nine!

running out of room for the candles -- but at least i had the correct number this time (see his fourth birthday post)

the plan had been to take his four best friends (most of whom he's known for half his life) to the carolina railhawks (professional soccer) game ... but it was a wash-out.  we switched gears and went bowling instead.  five boys is really the perfect number

always the serious athlete, when we took him to adventure landing, he actually brought his golf glove to play putt-putt

after losing in a go-kart race to susanna and me, the boys were still all smiles. (this is why i love being the blogger in the family -- chris would like to think they won, but he ain't the one at the computer)

crazy how full-circle life can be ... on his first birthday, we served dirt cake with gummy worms at his party.  and now, eight years later, we took him to celebrate at a local restaurant -- and their birthday dessert was none other than dirt cake

wondrous weekend #6: DC

for my final installment of the wondrous weekend series (which, let's face it, has amounted to almost all of the summer blog entries -- when a weary girl goes on summer vacation, it's not just from working), i bring you our photos from a quick trip up to DC.  from over a month ago.

ever since their successful trip last year down to atlanta to see their beloved dodgers play the braves, the mann men (chris, chris's dad, and liam) have been chomping at the bit to do it again.  so this summer's plan was a boys' trip up to see them square off against the nationals.  the tickets were purchased, the hotel was booked ... and then, one day prior to departure, chris's dad found out he had to stay home for a funeral.

and while we were all super sad that granddad couldn't make the trip, this opened the door for two certain girls to get in on the fun.  packing took susanna and me all of a minute -- because what else would we need besides toothbrushes and a few american girl dolls as companions?

with baseball being the all-day affair that it is (don't get me started), we really only had time to do one tourist attraction.  we chose the newseum -- and i daresay it's the best museum we have ever taken the kids to.  this was taken on their deck right after we looked at a huge chunk of the berlin wall

there were so many hands-on activities for the kids to try.  here's one of our children looking like a normal person, and our other child hamming it up for the entire fourth floor to see on the gigantic screen

at the "be a newscaster!" exhibit, liam had a plethora of background and subject options.  we were shocked he chose to be a sportscaster at a baseball game

dining in style with caroline and kit at the american girl place 

hanging out with a lifesize version of the girl of the year, saige.  (who names these dolls?!)  susanna actually began compiling her christmas list after we got home (!) and has requested the $150 hot air balloon from santa.  somehow i can hear him chuckling all the way from the north pole

hanging with the enemy -- chris's fraternity brother and groomsman, bill, who has season tickets to the nationals and scored their seats.  as someone with extensive baseball experience, i can say with authority that the dodgers' jersey is so much more attractive.  (sorry, bill.)  and really, isn't that the most important thing?

two elated fans as the dodgers secured another victory -- a 3-1 win in the 10th inning.  just add one more W to the longest road-game winning streak that baseball has seen in like a hundred years. (note: i guarantee you something in this statement is wrong, and will surely be corrected by liam when he sees this)

the MVP of RPS

for their last big hoorah of the summer, both kids are attending an all-day local camp called camp new life.  they arrive at 8:45 in the morning and leave at 5:00, and in the hours in between, they go fishing, play miniature golf, make leather crafts, do archery, swim, play games, and do a bunch of other things that leave them absolutely exhausted and sort of comatose on the ride home.  on the days i've driven our carpool for pick-up, all four of the children sit in the back seats and mumble two-word responses as their eyelids get heavy.  so it's not often until dinnertime, when they have a bit of extra nourishment in their bellies, that they perk up and regale us of stories from their long day.

yesterday, liam was the one who excitedly shared what had happened to susanna at lunch.  apparently while the entire camp eats, one member of each of the eight cabins is selected to participate in a huge rock-paper-scissors contest.  each representative casts their move against another cabin's representative in a sort of smallish version of the NCAA basketball tournament, "RPS'ing" (that's their shorthand name for rock-paper-scissors) until they arrive at one overall winner of the day.

yesterday was susanna's day.  our reserved, quiet chickadee got up in front of several hundred people (reluctantly, apparently, but she did it nonetheless) and, one by one, decimated her opposition.  she took no prisoners; she didn't apologize for her prowess.  she just defeated 'em all.  liam was so excited for her that he jumped up from his table and ran to the front to give her a hug and a kiss.  probably not the reaction desired by someone who shuns the spotlight, but hey, if she's going to be this talented, she's gonna have to learn how to deal with the fame.

i loved the story, and just chalked it up to susanna having a little bit of luck on her side.  chris, on the other hand, delved deeper.  "so, what was your strategy?" he asked.  "you must have had a way of choosing what to do each time.  how did you outwit all of your competition?"

surprisingly, susanna had an answer.  "well, i had been watching it for the past couple days, and kept noticing how boys almost always choose 'rock'.  so whenever i was against a boy, i knew i should go with 'paper'."  she grinned.  "it worked every time."

chris laughed out loud.  "this is crazy!"  he said.  "i swear this exact same thing played once on 'the simpsons'!"  and sure enough, within a minute he had located the exact clip on youtube.

i'm not really quite sure what to think about all of this.  as someone who has never seen an episode, i'm impressed as to how true-to-life this animated show turns out to be.  i'm also impressed that susanna's powers of observation confirmed something that apparently is quite accurate.  but mostly, i'm impressed that my husband could dig deep into the vaults of his memory and recall a 19-second segment of a show that aired in -- get this -- april of 1993.  that's more than twenty years, people!

i guess that the next time i really need to get deep into the mind of my seven- and eight-year olds, i need look no further than a funny-looking fox cartoon.  enjoy ...