Our son turned 9 today. Serendipitously, his school had a study day, so he was free to party all day long. Best friend Ivar slept over on Tuesday night and both boys were quite excited. And up early this morning.
He was ambivalent about his birthday over the past few days. Part of that was worry that his father and I might not be able to be there (if we had an emergency situation with the pregnancy); part of it was the associated thought of possibly having to share his birthday with his little brother. But mostly, it turns out, it was something his sister said. She told him we didn't have any presents for him. And he believed it!
But presents he received in abundance, and many visitors, and good weather. He went to bed quite satisfied, feeling very much the birthday boy.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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5 comments:
Congratulations. My oldest is 9, I can relate ;)
So what did he get of his little wishlist? And it *is* nice that his birthday stayed his own. But it is also nice to have a sibling birthday close, 'cause than there is more chance of 'grownups' visiting and thus of more presents [insert evil grin].
He got everything . . . the computer was much too big a present for a birthday, but considering the year he's had (we've all had), and the fact the family computer was dying a painful death, we felt good about giving it to him. Pokémon cards he got from friends. Money for the needy--my sticker business donates all its profits to charities. Well, I guess that's not really a birthday present ;-).
Mine on occassion intended to save for the needy (half of the Queensdaysales money and such) thought it is more intent than really sacrificing. He did very seriously consider going to poor people and teaching them how to make toys from garbage. Not practical at all, but I do appreciate the good intentions. Kids are egocentric, but at the same time they are (in general) very generous too.
I must admit that we are a very computeroriented household. We bought all three boys second hand computers at a time, because those were both cheaper and more loved that the electrical train some of their friends got. After that they got our old ones when we bought new ones, which has worked well so far but will not be enough in future, when they will attempt to play the really funky stuff. But the only 'family' computer is my spouses Wii.
We are now, slowly, letting my 9 yo on the internet. I bought a special Suske and Wiske for him, about the 'digital dangers' (de sinistere site) but is is a scary process.
How are he and his sister holding up? These are hard times for all of you, but for the kids it must be really overwhelming.
I'm looking into those "Net Nanny" type programs, not because I think my son needs to be watched over, but because he really, really doesn't suddenly want a page with scary stuff or bloody stuff to show up on his screen.
With our eldest we did need to "spy" on her -- at 10, 11, 12 she was putting up profiles left and right all over the Web, having chat sessions with total strangers, and even making sneaky dates to meet with people. I'm not worried about that with my son. He just wants to play Flyff :-). But my youngest daughter, well, that's another kettle of fish. We'll have to see when she gets a little older. Right now she's not very interested in the computer per se, though she loves the Wii and her Gameboy.
The youngest (oldest? only?) two are holding up really well, much to our relief. It's been a really hard year for them, but fortunately they're able to talk about it. Our son in particular still brings Meghan up from time to time. It's great how supportive their school has been, too, giving them time in class to talk about Meghan's illness and, when she died, devoting class time to it, having the kids make something for the funeral, etc.
I love how creative your kids are. Toys from garbage! You may have an inventor on your hands.
Lieve Grayson,
Ik las net je opmerking over hoe je je kinderen nu eens moet noemen. De jongsten, de oudsten, de enigen...
Heel herkenbaar en een beetje ontroerend vind ik dat. Dat wilde ik even laten weten.
Liefs, Barbara
P.S. Ik zou gewoon de jongsten blijven zeggen, denk ik. Voorlopig zijn ze ook nog de jongsten, toch? Meghan is de komende jaren nog ouder dan dat zij zijn...!
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