A Busy Week of Birthdays

It's a well known fact that I'm more than a little bit Type A/anal retentive when it comes to things like dust in the house, drawer organization, the cleanliness of my car and pretty much anything else that I can get my hands on. What I never would have predicted, though, is how much control I was able to have regarding my kids' due dates. For example, when I wished that Zoe would arrive sometime toward the end of the school year, she arrived on June 2. Before that, when I said that I would love it if my first two kids were about two years apart, Charlie arrived three days after Zach turned two. Too bad this whole "do exactly as mom wants" theme didn't last very long.

But even though there are so many similarities between my boys - they have similar birthdays, they both have brown hair, they both play piano, they both display smart ass tendencies - their arrivals and homecomings couldn't have been more different.

• Kid #1 required over two hours of pushing, but Kid #2 was out in about 20 minutes.
• Doug took about a week off from work when Kid #1 was born, but after Kid #2 came home on a Sunday, Doug was back at work on Monday.
• Kid #1 came home from the hospital to a quiet house and a relaxing week without many visitors. Kid #2 came home and within three hours, I was hosting a BBQ for my family so that we could celebrate Zach's second birthday and then, right after that, we hosted a 12-team fantasy football draft.
• Kid #1 had a closet full of new clothes. Kid #2 had a closet full of hand-me-downs.
• Kid #1 didn't have his first babysitter until he was about five months old. Kid #2 had his first babysitter when he was five days old, so that I could mow the lawn.
• Kid #1 had a huge birthday party when he turned one, with tons of food, a keg and dozens of gifts. Kid #2 also had a huge party for his first birthday, at which we also celebrated Kid #1's third birthday. In fact, Kid #2 has yet to have a birthday party that isn't shared.
• Kid #1 was welcomed into the world by a mom, a dad and two dogs. Kid #2 was also welcomed by a mom, a dad and the same two dogs but, in addition, was also welcomed by a great big brother that never had to be told "don't pet the baby so hard, don't touch his eyes, no you can't carry the baby" and "don't feed the baby Goldfish."

Over the years, the boys have chosen to participate in a lot of the same activities, but they have also developed their own personalities and friendships. They no longer share a bedroom, they have different strengths in school and even their tennis games are completely different. One thing that they both were able to enjoy together, though, was welcoming Zoe into our family and becoming big brothers. And even though they play with her differently and one has more patience than the other, they both love her.

So Charlie, I can't believe you're going to be a dozen years old tomorrow. I hope you have a great day and if you're lucky, your little sister will sing to you, refrain from being demanding, and maybe even go an entire day without hitting you in the peanut butter gut.

A Note To The Middle Child

Dear Charlie,

Since you have officially started working on the 6th grade end-of-year biography project and we will be spending a lot of time talking about your life up to this point, I thought I should take a minute to let you know how proud I am of you. I know that I get mad, and yell, and scream, and sometimes you may think that my eyeballs are actually going to come shooting out of my head, but at the end of the day when you are asleep and I'm finally able to sit down with a drink in my hand, I am proud of you.

You were the easiest baby imaginable, then you were an easy-going toddler and even now, in your last year of elementary school, you're still a pretty great kid. Sure, we've had our moments of disagreement -- like that time you forged my signature on a missing assignment notice and I found the dreaded piece of paper in your backpack two weeks later -- but we always manage to work things out.

Since it seems that sometimes the bad moments are more memorable than the good and I'm not well known for dishing out excessive amounts of praise, consider this note as my way of being a dorky mom, embarassing you and saying "job well done" and "way to go."

• I love that even though you will never turn down a violent video game, you have a soft spot for every animal created and are still trying to convince me that we should get a cat, even though we're all allergic.
• I love that you never complain about wearing hand-me-downs.
• I love that you enjoy vacations on the beach as much as I do. I will never forget when our week in Jamaica came to an end, we got on the plane and as soon as the landing gear left the tarmac, you burst into tears.
• I love that you never get sick.
• I love watching you practice the piano while wearing tennis clothes or a baseball uniform.
• I love that you could care less about having your own iPod.
• Even though your sister yells at you almost more than me, I love that you will still voluntarily play with her and laugh at the funny things she does.
• I love that you never ask me to take a trip to hell so that you can attend "Turkey Bingo, Spring Fling" or any of the other school fundraisers.
• I know this makes me slightly irresponsible, but I love listening to you rip on the dorky things that other sixth grade kids do.
• And I love listening to you rip on their parents even more.
• I love that, until recently, you still believed in Santa Claus.

I know that there are times that I am frustrated and sometimes I wonder if you might be deaf, blind, clueless, illiterate and, even though you're standing upright, asleep, but I am also constantly impressed with your intelligence, athleticism, musical ability and generosity.

There are only about three months left in this school year and then you will be headed to the junior high with your brother. Before September arrives, though, there are three things I can guarantee for the summer vacation:

1. We're going to be spending a lot of time at the pool.
2. At some point, but hopefully not everyday, I'll yell.
3. I love you.

As far as the biography project goes, let me know if you want to include this picture since it seems to sum up your personality better than any of the others I found: