Son number One

It's not my birthday, or my oldest kids birthday that makes me start thinking about how much time has gone by. It's always Kid Number Two. Not this year so much, even though he turned 15.
Yep, Fifteen.

On January 10th.

Because his birthday is right after Christmas, it sort of sneaks up on us. We plan his gifts when we plan Christmas presents, but it really is difficult to ever do a party.
It's still during Break, so that was difficult when he was little....

This year, he wanted to movie hop with his friend all day - and the rest of us had plans, so we sang in the morning and gave him his Crazy Chocolate Cake I made. It was 4 layers of a 6" cake with mini chips on the side. Twix Bars and Milky Way Bars chopped up on top and then a Hershey Bar melted on top of the whole thing.

He didn't have to share.

He did a little happy dance when he saw it.

DJ at fifteen.

Well he isn't homeschooling it anymore. He wanted to go to High School with his sister. Well, he wanted to go to the same high school that his dad went to (never mind that I went there too, I don't count)
He's trying new things. Even if I have to force him at first. He's still doing well in school. We have had a couple of things come up. With kids. Now with a teacher. It's okay. He has to learn how to get along.

He hated Cross Country at first, now he loves it and is also joining the Track Team

It's funny, he and I argue - but I think it's because he reminds me of my brother at that age and I go into the Big Sister Your Annoying Me mode. I didn't realize it for a while, and I was just furious with him, like All The Time! Then I heard, HEARD my brother's voice come out of his mouth, and I went...ohhhh. So I don't get into it with him as much anymore.
And he's taller than me.

Mikey ADORES him right now. DJ tries really hard to be a good Big Brother to him.

He is a really great kid. He's kind. And thinks the world should be fair to everyone. He gets super excited over the wildest things. He wants to be funny, but he's not...BUT he finally-FINALLY is getting other people's humor OR playing it off until we can explain it. I think Fifteen is going to be a fun year for him!

Iron Man

All of a sudden, our little baby has become a big kid.
And I have to admit, that all of those things you hear about the baby of the family being spoiled and getting away with everything is true --

Mainly because we are just too tired to enforce all the same rules that we had for the older ones.

The 'baby' became enthralled with Iron Man because I gave him my iPod to distract him from bothering us while we were getting his older brother used to the Homeschool routine. It has a video of the song from some cartoon show or something... My iPod has our entire library on it, in case -- gasp! someone leaves their own iPod at home and can't get to their playlist.
So I have also let the big kids bend the TV rule about only watching shows that are age appropriate for the youngest in the room
(which I admit, has become more difficult to do as they have gotten older and uh... I've uh... added more kids to the mix...)
and Mikey ended up watching some Iron Man cartoon thing and he was hooked!

Santa brought him lots of Iron Man things -- and the older ones liked the Avengers movie, but really, I don't know anything about Iron Man. I know Superman. I know Xmen. I know even know a little about Spider-Man and Batman, though those two annoy me. But, I'm not up on the Iron Man.

I have this thing. I don't know what to call it. If you have something -- I want the set. I had the Nancy Drew Books as a kid. #4 Well, I'm not reading #4 until I get #1-3. Never mind that they aren't in a series or anything. And if I bought a Blues Clues toy, you know I was not only getting Blue and Steve, but Magenta, Periwinkle, Shovel & Pail and anything else they made.
Come on. We have a Thinking Chair --
You don't even want to know how many Beanie Babies we have. Or Little People.
I'm trying to Stop It.
Mainly because it sounds crazy.
(yes, my husband knew all of this before he married me)

So between not knowing much about Iron Man, and making a real attempt to Stop It (you know, the weird compulsive thing) I'm guessing we are all set with the Iron Man stuff! ....?

Another thing the older kids were never allowed to do, is ask for things when we were at a store like Target. Yes, even when they were little. Paige never asked to. Yep. Really. I let her play with a toy and then we put it back when we walked out of the aisle. Different story with the next two. When DJ and then Kelly came along and we went into places, even the market, and the "can I have" started -- 18 months, 2? I would tell them, "next time I won't let you hold the toy if you complain when it's time to put it back"
Or
"next time you won't get to come into the store with me"

-- it's not like they'll bust you out at that age! They don't turn it back on you and say, 'Oh yeah, what will you do then? Leave me in the car?'

Yes, I have four kids. But I'm not used to them asking for things when we are in a store. Even now, the big kids have to really want something to ask for it -- Paige will even offer babysitting money for blackberries when they are in season! Besides, if they show an interest in anything, their crazy mother gets them the series/set/pair.
Keep in mind though --

I do a lot more shopping online now than ever before.

The Baby gets away with a lot more than the older kids.

and I just needed a couple things from Target

How am I supposed to resist, "Mama can I have this at my house?"!?!

Daddy let him choose one and he walked over and put the other back -- but I am pretty sure it was to keep me from buying all the accessories to go with it.