10 Incredibly Short Years

Jay turned ten years old today. There's no way to articulate what I'm feeling. I'm inundated with a wave of emotions. It's such a cliche and yet I remember the day he was born. I was out shopping with one of my best friends from high school when my father called and told me to get over to the hospital because my nephew had been born. I had no idea back then that I would grow to love him this much. Sometimes I'm glad that we can't look into the future and see what's in store. It's been a pleasure watching him grow into the little man he is today.

That first part of my own life seems so far away --my first ten years and yet it's had such an extraordinary impact on who I am today. I wonder who he'll be at 27. I hope he's healthy and happy and sweet and hardworking and respectful and genuine. I hope he appreciates his life and the precious time we have that doesn't always seem so precious in the midst of it all.

We kicked off the double digit celebration at five past midnight. I decorated the coffee table in our living room with his birthday gifts (and gifts he's received since coming to Boston). I'll try to upload pictures later.

Digital camera (thanks Ash)
Basketball shoes (thanks Bolly)
Spygear watch and glasses (thanks Mom -- Jay's mom, not mine)
Birthday cards and MONEY (thanks Mama -- my mom and Aunt J)
Ipod (thanks Ben -- technically not a birthday gift but since I'm such a sucker, I decided to give it to him early on the condition that his attitude towards schoolwork continues to improve)
Sunglasses, Harvard T shirt, Presidents ruler (Molly spoils him endlessly. I can't thank you enough if you're reading this. Thanks for the most interesting birthday cake EVER. I'll be sure to post about that later!)
Clothes, PSP game, candy, puzzle, oreo cupcakes (Yours truly)
Georock (a really fun gift that I'd never heard of from Ben who bought it from the Natural History Museum at Harvard. We're definitely going and posting about it!!! So stay tuned).


I also get BONUS points because I cooked a special birthday breakfast requested by our birthday boy. Bacon, sunnyside up eggs and a cupcake. He actually had a much longer menu planned but I wasn't feeling too great so I cut it short and surprised him with the oreo cupcake. He was more excited about having cake for breakfast than he was about the gifts. Such a funny boy.

And because I'm such a nice aunt, I gave him the day off from studying. NOT! Ha. He worked for 90 minutes on rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand. He played with a little girl that I tutor and her neighborhood friends and then he, Molly and I walked to McDonald's for birthday lunch. His treat!

Imagine our little man! Buying lunch for his two favorite Boston girls on his day. He has such a good heart. He also picked out a gift for his little brother after a bit of prodding. We spent about 30 minutes in Marshalls trying on over a dozen sunglasses and we ended up going with a pair he picked in the first few minutes. He really enjoyed all the emphasis being on him today although I honestly couldn't tell the difference between any other day!

Later in the evening we drove out to Revere Beach to look at fireworks and attempted to see the sand sculpture festival but we'll watch tomorrow afternoon. It was dangerous driving out there tonight. There was just way too much traffic and people were impatient and frustrated which ultimately leads to accidents so I just decided to hightail it out of there and we'll hit it up tomorrow on the train. And I couldn't disappoint Jay on his birthday -- so we went to the park and ran through the sprinklers and played on the see saw with Chewy followed by homemade birthday cake and movie night. Problem Child. Ha ha! Watching these old movies from my youth make me appreciate good movies.

He's literally been awake on his birthday for over 16 hours! He's exhausted. I'm exhausted. And yet when we walked through the house tonight, I played Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday for him as he got ready for bed and he came right up and cuddled beside me with his head on my shoulders. I hope we're always this close. After a few questions about Stevie, I got the impression he didn't know him as a musical genius and so I played hit after hit hoping something would resonate. It didn't. So if any family members are reading out there, T.I. is out and Motown and Oldies are in! We can't fail him on teaching him to appreciate real music.

There's one more gift he has yet to receive. On Tuesday Jay's opening a savings account! He can't wait. We've decided that the account is deposit only and if he keeps it for at least ten years without withdrawing (at the age of 16 when he gains full control) then he'll have a special surprise.

Wonder what that might be. :) Guess we'll find out when he's 20!

Happy Birthday, Jay! I had the best day with you. I always do.