7 years ( April 27th)

7 years.... And I am not talking about my current favorite song by Lukas Graham.  I am talking about the age that my little boy just turned today.  I cannot even believe that my Myles McCoy is now 7 years old.  Just seven years ago on April 27, 2009 at 3:20pm, I gave birth to my only son.  The times surrounding that moment stand out to me more than I realized they did.

My stay in the hospital after Myles was born was pretty interesting.  I wasn't alone like I was when I had Madison. I was sharing the moment with Damian. I remember struggling with that thought... That I wasn't the only person responsible for him, that it wasn't just MY opinions that mattered, or just  MY decisions that counted.  Myles, at only hours old, was teaching me about my marriage and changing my way of thinking.

And now, at 7 years old, Myles still teaches me things on a daily basis.  Named after Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner, this little boy is certainly his father's child.  He is my little music man.  He has an appreciation for music that comes from within.  He loves sitting with Daddy and PopUp and learning about different genres and musical artists.  One week , he wants to listen to Beethoven each night before bed, the next week it's The Fresh Prince, then comes, Michael Jackson, Eddie Palmieri, his dad's hip hop music, or his uncles... The Curtis Brothers....  You never really know with him,  I just love that.

He has a constant desire to learn something new and each time he does, it becomes a tiny obsession for him. Drives me crazy, but I love it all at the same time.

There is just something about the way he will tell me, when I am feeling bad about my weight, "Mommy, you aren't fat. You are the perfect size for a mommy", that just melts my heart-- every time!

Now, I definitely know a thing or two about Momma's boys..and while I wouldn't call Myles a Momma's boy, I will admit that there is a special place in my heart that he fits just oh so perfectly in!!

Enough of all of this sentimental stuff... Let me just say - HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY MR MYLES!!

This past Sunday, Mama, in typical, Mama fashion threw Myles a birthday party.  I am not a huge party person, so I let Mama take over in thIs area for certain ages.  I will take the reins for some of the big milestone birthdays, but since it gives Mama extra pleasure to do this for her grandkids, I figure that I should let het.  And the kids are always super appreciative and excited, venue though it took me a while to get used to it.  This year, Myles wanted a Lego Star Wars party. So this is what Abby gave him.  Myles had such a great time and the weather was definitely on our side.  A special thank you to everyone that came over to celebrate Myles birthday with him.  It makes me so grateful to have such a wonderful family and great friends that are just like family care so much about my kids.  And to those that didn't even know about the party.. My apologies.. I suck at things like passing the word around- one of my many parenting flaws, had to do with that anti social thing that I swear I am gig to work on every year haha.

 

And since. Myles birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, it was very low key.  Damian and I had to work and the kids had school.  On Wednesday Myles has piano lessons and we decided to keep everyone's schedule as is, so Madison had dance and Mayci, who would normally go to church (but youth services were cancelled)' came home and hung out with me.  But no worries, we still made sure to take some time out to sing Happy Birthday and celebrate Myles' actual birthday!  Grandma Virginia and Grandpa Wayne came by bearing gifts for Myles.. He was so happy with all his new Pokemon paraphernalia lol.  PopUp was over hanging out with Myles also helping him and Grandpa Wayne figure out how to play with Myles new toys.  Mama and Veronica came by after every church to celebrate Myles as well. Grandma and Granopa had to leave a little earlier, but the rest of us struggles to wait until Madison got home from dance, around 920p to sing Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes. Myles was getting a little restless but understood that Madison wanted to be around- especially since she feels like she misses out on so much because of dance. Uuuuugggghhhh..... as I am now typing this , I realize that I completely forgot about the ice cream hahaha.. I guess that means that I will have a snack for later heehee

While Myles was getting ready for bed waiting for daddy to cuddle him, he said to me, "Mommy, thank you so much for my birthday party today. I know you are tired and want to go to bed, so I am happy that you let me stay up and have cupcakes after my bedtime and open up my gifts! I am having a great birthday and I already love being 7!"

Happy Birthday to my precious son! You manage to melt my heart with the simplest things. I love you!!

Weekend in Review April 15- April 17th

Such a good weekend with even better weather!!  I have to say that this was probably one of the nicest weekends I have had in a while.  All 5 of us were home and got to spend some time together.  Albert, Luques, Karina, and Zeni were all in town on Saturday into Sunday.  I missed seeing Zaccai, but he was around Sunday night for a gig.  All in all -- such a great family oriented weekend.

Saturday brought some beautiful weather with it!  After karate with Mayci, lots of time was spent outside playing, cleaning up the yard, and the little kids doing a bit of their digging holes in the backyard gardening.

By mid afternoon we headed over to Mama and PopUp's to see Luques, Karina, and Zeni-- it was Zeni's first trip to CT so it was quite the BIG DEAL!!  Mama was super excited to show off her newest grandbaby lots of people came by to greet Baby Z and see her proud new parents!!!!  Yvette, Paul, Nikko, Melina, Natalia, Angelina, Abigail, Jacob, Monica, Jorge, Titi Tata, Carol, Veronica, and Albert are just to name a few.  The kids decided to stay over longer because they were having such a good time and Madison was hanging out with Nikko and Melina, who are just a year older than she is :)


Mayci at the park-- pretending to be the Statue of Liberty

Myles and I racing...

Yup--- I won the race.. the little girl next to me is some friend that Myles met at the park named Emily

Miss Zeni Bea

Mama with her newest grandbaby

Quality time for Mama and Zeni

Sunday was a low key day for the family as well.  The Curtis Brothers Quartet had a gig in Hartford on Sunday night. So the family, excluding Myles and me, went to go support them also.  Myles and I stayed back so that we could ensure that he would get to bed on time and be prepared for his first day back at school after a week long Spring Break.  I was pretty surprised to find out that Damian also ended up playing a little as well.  I have heard from many that went that it was a great show and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The weather was so beautiful on Sunday, that the kids just HAD to eat breakfast outside on the back porch

Thumb wrestling match between Albert and Madison

I hope this upcoming weekend bring some lifelong memories as well...

Engaging in some intense conversation with Zeni

Easter Weekend - March 25-27

Happy Late Easter!!

If you celebrate Easter, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday!  If you don't celebrate, I hope that your weekend was equally as wonderful. 

We had a nice weekend with quality time with the kids and some cousins filled with egg decorating, egg hunts, and good food.  The kids seemed to have a fantastic weekend and Madison even made a YouTube video about what the kids got in their Easter Baskets at home.  I posted it on Instagram and FB, but I will be sure to include it here for you to enjoy.  My kids are truly the best- even when they are annoying the hell out of me.

Egg decorating took place on Saturday at Grandma Virginia's house this year.  Last year we did it over there also.  Not many tears this year, it's not real Easter egg decorating unless at least 1 person cries.  Hahaha-- at least that's the case in our family.  The decorating part went over without too much drama.  Unfortunately the day sort of ended abruptly with some fighting amongst siblings ( and this time the kids were not involved--). I will have to admit, that this was certainly not my finest moment- but I will spare you all of the details.  If you know any of my kids and you are close to them, then chances are you will hear about or already have.  The younger 2 are still learning to keep certain "family stories" to themselves, hee hee.  We did do a live video on FB for the first 11 minutes of egg decorating.  The eggs came out nicely and Jaida (Amanda's daughter) also decorated her hands quite nicely as well, even though Amanda didn't think so. Damian always misses out because of gigs and working at the store, but I try to take plenty of pictures and the kids always keep him up to date.

Easter Sunday started off pretty late for my kids. They didn't wake up until closer to 9a.  They seemed to enjoy their baskets and then just hung out around the house until we headed over to Mama and PopUp's house mid afternoon. 

We spent the rest of the day over there with Mama, PopUp, Veronica (mama's friend from church), Dalila, Iliana, Zaccai, Julie, Natalia, Abigail, Angelina, and Azarah.  As always, Madison, Myles, and Mayci had to search for their Easter baskets in the house.  And then the kids separated for a "treasure" Easter egg hunt, followed by just a normal Easter Egg Hunt.  This year, Zaccai was in charge of the older kids treasure hunt.  The older group this year was Madison, Angelina, Myles and Azarah.  They started off when one a few clues to get them around the yard and then in typical Zaccai style they ended up all over the place, having to send pictures back and forth to Zaccai to have to get the next clue.  They had a blast and both the older group and younger groups competed their missions!!  The kids, except for Madison, continued with the "normal" egg hunt - but with the amount of eggs hidden, I am sure they will be finding more for years to come.

Here is a little bit of the back and forth between Madison and her group and Zaccai  via texts during their treasure hunt:

WOOOOOHOOOO!!!  We found the egg!!!  -- I guess Mayci wanted in on the action too! :)