We are officially 13!

So the monster made it to 13 which means so did I. Wow. I have very mixed emotions about this milestone. I am so proud of the person he is becoming and hope that the good in him continues to shine through and doesn't get bogged down with the teenage attitude and angst that I am sure is going to turn up a few notches in the coming years. But then I am sad bc he is really is growing up. I miss the days when I could suggest something fun for the two of us and he wouldn't think twice about doing something with me. We used to have game nights at home or movie nights or go somewhere together and it was fun, now he thinks doing those things with me is boring. I realize this is a part of growing up but I miss it.

For the past few years I have not thrown parties for the monster. He got to the point where the parties cost as much as the gifts he wanted me to buy and I couldn't afford to do both so at 10 I told him he would have to chose a party or an expensive gift, he has always chosen the gift. He hasn't asked for a party and I have offered to throw a party as his gift but he hasn't wanted that. This year not having something has been strangely difficult for me. It really wasn't possible to have a party since the weekend of his birthday his dad was in town and with that being so rare I didn't want to intrude on the weekend and this coming weekend he is going camping with friends. I feel like next weekend would be to late and it's his cousins birthday so I don't want to take away from her. As was pointed out when his father didn't want to give him to me on his actual birthday it's not about me it's about my son and his wishes but I still feel as if I should have done more to commemorate this birthday. Maybe I can do something better next year, for this year here are pictures from the cake he had with his dads family and the cake I had for him on his actual birthday.

The Monster and 4 of his 6 cousins, all helping him blow out the candles

The cake we had on his actual birthday.