Things are changing in this house. It is so freakin weird how it seems to be coinciding with Aiden's 5th birthday approaching. It's like he knows he's getting older, and so he's I'm not going to say acting older because I don't know, I suppose he is. I'm his Mom though and we see the little kid in them all the time. Now I totally get it. Your Mom is who you can still get away with acting like a kid around, so I may as well get used to it. I totally see who and when he acts 'older' around, uh, uncle kevin, aunt amanda, neighbor girl "Deanna" said in a dreamy kind of way. ;)

He'd kill me for posting this but for looking back as a journal kinda sake let me chat for just a bit about Deanna. Again said it in a dreamy kind of way. Deanna is a 15yo blonde across the street. She is such a sweet girl. Always precocious and now coming more into her age. She is, as well as all the older kids on our culdesac are, very good with my boys. For months-years Aiden has had a small crush on Deanna. Calling her name from inside and hiding, going to the window to see if she's outside or home, wanting to go outside when she's out... Either this past Sat or the one before? The boys were outside by 9am, no one else was. Aiden was looking for the 7yo boy, Alex mainly. He was dressed in his Red Power Rangers costume, over his pajamas thinking he was pretty cool... Shortly after he was outside, Deanna came out, to mow the lawn I think. I, as I do every 3-5 mins or so peaked outside at just the right moment to notice Aiden hiding behind Alex's Mom's car. I knew he didn't want Deanna to see him playing dressup. Sure enough, he found the right moment and booked it home, nonchalantly coming in to say he wanted to change.

This week he grabbed a small notebook as he occasionally does and wrote his name, asked me to write "loves" which I did and then wrote MOM. He carried it around a bit like this age does with a lot of things and then went on to mention how "it could say Mom, Dad, Colin, Brady, Richter (pause) and Deanna (smile)".

He is so done. This will be by far the hardest part of parenting for me I foresee. Mending broken hearts.

Anyway I have just been noticing that some family dynamics are changing on the homefront. Brady's initiated a Fall Wine Festival and gathering lately. He'll be serving crackers and cheese with his whine. We're working on that. He's even grating on Aiden's nerves though I think because Aiden's been taking a different approach with him lately. One that we are also working on. Aiden has also been shifting his brotherly love to Colin. He is in. love. with his baby brother, without a doubt. It really is precious to watch.



Speaking of Mr. ColinPatrick. He donned a hat and a hoodie today. His hair is in that 'what's up? infant' stage. It has no idea what it is doing. I trimmed the sides today. I too have no idea what I am doing. 9+ months or so when I didn't know what/who C was going to be, I was afraid we had used up all our good hair genes on the other two. Shirley, I'm not the one passing it down so it's obviously Brett. I remember thinking since I didn't have a girl and wouldn't it work out that way that if C was a girl I was certain she'd have poker-straight dark hair (not that there's anything wrong with that). Boy or girl, so far I was right. For now, hats do him justice.




Brady's head injuries lately have all healed well. That little mark on his forehead is all that's left of my worrisome stomach troubles last week at this time. Ah, hindsight.



This is the real ColinPatrick. As many fingers in the mouth as possible. The bugger's getting both top front toofers in at the moment and honestly is handling it like a champ.


That's our weekly update.