First day of middle school!

New markers!

The band...

... Is back together for a brief engagement.

Fifth grade is over!

Connect Four

This is some serious stuff.

Officially 5 feet tall.

The other night

Zack said, "Mama, when I was little I thought that I was the only one that could see things. Like everything was only from my perspective"

Kind of blew me away. If this isn't pre-Theory of Mind in a nutshell, I don't know what is. 

Snuggling

A post-workout-and-gardening snuggle/recuperation.

Aquarium

Pickles and Funzo at the new Marine Rescue Center in Baltimore. We went at the end of August--it was pretty amazing!

Fun on the beach.

First day of fifth!

My boys.

For the record...

...the boy is 80 lbs and 58".

Doodles at Dewey 2018

Balloons

I love watching this kid grow up... But I'm also glad he still thinks balloons are fun.

Good in the world

Zack went over to a friend's house to play today. I went to pick him up and chatted with the parents for a bit. After Zack thanked them for having him, the father said "Zack, you are a force for good in this world. You come over and bring happiness to this house." 

Of course, it was nice to hear such things said about my son. But it was doubly nice because it reminded me of Nonni and what everyone said about her, that she engendered happiness wherever she went. 

10

This kid turned 10 today. A decade. A lot of inches longer.

He is sweet, thoughtful, confident, artistic, funny, a little bit crazy, and friends with everyone. I wish this for him always. I love him to the moon and back.

Christmas came early

Mark and Judy got Zack and Rob an early Christmas gift--tickets to the new Star Wars movie. They loved it!

A new journey

The boy has been lucky enough to inherit my teeth, poor thing. So we've started down orthodontics road as of this week. He has spacers until Monday, when he gets expanders. Then it's on to braces in December. Funny how it takes me all right back to Dr. Bedrosian, my orthodontist.

Happy Halloween!!!