I woke up this morning...so freakin' early. All I could think about was giving birth to Nick. All I could think about were birthdays of yesteryear. All I could think about was Nick's zest for life. All I could do was smile. (Though now I'm crying.) All I wanted to do was lay in bed and spend my day thinking about how amazing Nick was and all of the fun times we had with him.
When I thought about the blog for today, I thought it would I would wait until I got my tattoo later this afternoon. I thought maybe I would just reblog the story of his birth that I wrote so long ago. I thought about many things I could blog about today. But this morning, with so many of his birthday memories coming to me..I decided I would share some of those memories because I don't want to ever forget those memories and I like sharing stories about him.
Nick's 1st birthday was in Florida. I was a working mom at the time and he went to at an at home sitter. Our friends consisted of church friends from Melbourne Seventh Day Adventist Church and Nick's baby sitter. My mom's house backed into a huge city park with a big Ramada with picnic tables. We rented out the Ramada, ordered a huge cake, invited all of the kids from his Cradle Roll (Nursery) Sabbath School class (and their siblings), his baby sitter and children from there and my family. I brought out a whole mess of pots and pans and spoons and laid them out on blankets on the grass. Nick ate his birthday cake while sitting on his Uncle Michael's lap. Michael didn't want to get dirty, so he made sure Nick didn't eat the cake like a baby should. It was pretty funny. Then the kids sat down on the blankets and made a joyful noise! (I'm pretty certain the neighbors hated me!) Nick loved to bang on pots and pans at home. His face always lit up when he got to make music with them!
I don't remember all of Nick's birthdays. I have a horrible memory. And I'm certain that some of these things that I THINK are birthday memories might not really be birthday memories. *laugh* Tracy may correct me when he reads this. *laugh*
I *THINK* it was Nick's 3rd birthday..... I don't remember *why* but we HAD to go to do Disney World so that he could meet Mickey Mouse for his birthday. Gosh I remember his little face (I wish I had this picture scanned.....) He still had the biggest chipmunk cheeks. He had a blue wind breaker on. He had a blue ball cap type hat on that had Mickey Mouse on it. And we stood in line for forever for him to meet Mickey Mouse. Nick always loved Disney World and since we lived an hour away, and there were "Resident" rates, we used to go often. But this 3rd birthday we had no money and a friend that I worked with (who lived in Detroit, MI) sent Nick money for his birthday..just so he could go and meet Mickey Mouse. No pun, intended, it was a magical day!
His 4th birthday was spent back at the park with friends from church, day care, and Tracy and Nick's surfing buddies. It was so much fun!!! Water guns, cake and play ground..just what ever kid needs! Oh ya.. and his girlfriend from day care!
Then in Kindergarten, Nick made this friend named April. Actually, at first, we had to keep having talks with the teacher about this girl. She kept taking Nick's Ice Cream Money. Well she didn't really TAKE it as much as she kept forcing Nick to buy her Ice Cream or candy or something. She was constantly "bullying" him to get his attention. *laugh* We finally got it all figured out, and the two became inseparable. I want to say for his 6th birthday we took him and April to Universal Studios on a "date" for his birthday. (Though something in my head says it was a few years later...I don't remember.) But they both got autograph books and pens and they would run from character to character getting autographs. He and April used to have play dates at her house and ride bikes up and down her street and play games and have a great time (once we got the ice cream money thing situated. That little girl was nothing short of bossy. but she knew what she wanted... and what can I say, Nick was quite the catch!)
When we moved to Arizona there weren't alot of crazy birthdays. We had kind of set this system up for the kids. One year its a birthday party. The next year its a family celebration. The third year its a theme park of some sort. It was a 3 year rotation. With that memory firmly in place now, I am certain that the Disney World and Universal Studios stories must have been accurate. *laugh* But Arizona didn't have theme parks really. The closest they had was Castles and Coasters, and over grown mini golf place with a few carnival rides.
The only birthdays in Arizona that I remember are 2 very specific ones. They are the 2 years that we broke our rules about the 3 year cycle. I think it was nick's 11th birthday. It might have been his 12th. It's hard to remember....Omi had been born; I had multiple personalities; and our friend was losing her battle with brain cancer and people were not always getting along in our circle of friends. Anyway, we were having a party for Nick. We had invited his best friends from Cub/Boy Scouts and kids from his class. Nick's 5th grade year (which would have been his 11th birthday) sucked. He was being bullied by boys in his class. He really counted on his friends from the Scouts. His 6th grade year was a bit better. He still didnt' have friends, but he was getting all A's and he had even gotten and A+ in English which his teacher swears he NEVER gives out because kids had to earn that kind of grade.....and Nick did. Anyway, we invited these kids to come to the birthday party. And NONE of his friends showed up! We even called the 2 from scouts who "all of a sudden" had "other things to do with each other" and did not show up to his birthday. The only people who came were Nate's friends (all these families hung out together all the time.....so the ones that showed up were Nate's friends and my best friend Annelle) and of course our friend Michael. Nick was devastated.
So the next year, we broke the rule and decided to have another birthday party for him. This year we held it at a Bowling Alley. We invited a few friends... yup this was his 12th birthday (his 6th grade year..cause I remember we even invited the kids who weren't nice to him in the 5th grade year). I think people came cause it was at the bowling alley and they were gonna get to bowl and not just sit around a house for a party. Sad but true. It's not like they were regular friends of Nick's. But it didn't matter to me.. and I don't think it mattered to Nick. I think the only thing that mattered is that Nick had people at his party to play with and laugh with! That year, Nick got a fancy custom made computer for his birthday. And they gave him a bowling pin to take home. (I think we still have that bowling pin somewhere.) It was a fun birthday for him. It was fun to see him smiling.
Then we moved to Idaho. Birthday's changed here. Once again, even less of a theme park. Though we do have a water park and a pretty decent mini golf entertainment place. But this is the place that he, by far, had his best birthday party ever! We moved here when Nick was in 8th grade. He was NOT happy about being taken away from Arizona, which he pretty much knew as home. He had a rough time here trying to find his place and fit in. However, in 9th grade for his 15th birthday party, we decided to have a huge party. We had nice this really cool garage that was extra deep with a work area in the shape of a U then there was the open space for the cars to park. We picked up everything off of the work benches, cleaned out the garage, stacked everything up on the shelves or stacked things to make tables. Then we draped black painters plastic drop clothes all around the sides of the garage covering up the shelving units. Only thing left open were the work bench tables to set out food and stuffs. Then we let Nick and his friends loose with neon paint. They splashed the black tarps with neon paint. We brought out black lights and strobe lights and disco balls. We brought out the stereo and camping chairs. He had a huge group of friends over. They had pizza and cup cakes. They ran between the garage and the trampoline outside. They had the door from the main part of the house to the mud room/garage/nick's bedroom closed... and they just partied and lived it up. Loud and crazy with lots of laughter and Nick's little sister to keep an eye on them! Every once in a while I would pop my head in to check on the kids, but they had one hell of a party....complete with cupcake wars! That garage was a disaster! LOL. Just thinking about it makes me smile! And I'm still friends with many of those kids on my facebook. God I love those kids!
Suzy entered the picture after that birthday. And birthday's were calmer.
Then when he and Suzy turned 21, we bought them tickets to Vegas. Michael, Tracy and I met them there. We spent a weekend drinking and partying. We went to the German restaurant and Nick and I entered the stein holding competition together. I beat him. *laugh* (but not by much..the drunk next to him caused him issues.) They got birthday swats from the shot girls. We sat around and played black jack. They drank HUGE margaritas. We swam in the pools. I took the kids to see the Bodies exhibit. We went to Coyote Ugly. We went to see Ka (amazing!) We had such a great time teaching the kids how to drink real beer. *laugh*
Then the last birthday I got to celebrate with Nick was his 24th birthday. I was there because Mom had her hip replaced. There was a big concert in Orlando called Earth Day Birthday. It was filled with hard rock bands and they kids had always wanted to go. This year Offspring was going to be there. I loved Offspring. So for Nick's birthday, I bought us all tickets to go. The concert wasnt' on his birthday, but I did give him the tickets. *laugh* I don't remember what we did for his birthday. I want to think it was just dinner at home due to work and school. But the concert was the real party! On the way there, we were listening to the sponsoring radio station. It mentioned something about people being naked or topless or something. I was confused. And the kids informed me that women run around topless with their breasts painted. I had ALWAYS wanted to do that! Nick rolled his eyes at me and probably prayed to the Spaghetti Monster that I would keep my clothes on. But it was too late. It was decided. I told him there would be plenty of other naked breasts for him to look at.. he didn't have to look at mine! And I also said I would get Suzy's painted and he could just stare at hers all day. *laugh* As soon as we got there, we found the place to get our breasts painted. Suzy and I both got butterflies painted on our breasts and spent the entire day wandering the concert topless. I am pretty certain I scared my son for life.. but since he only lived another year and a half...I didn't have to pay for his therapy! *laugh* We had such a fun day that day!!!! We rocked out hard! I still had my concussion and they were trying to teach me how to head bang. That didn't work out so well. Oh my aching head! We danced. We sang. We rocked hard! It was the best day! I am so glad I got to share that day with him.
One thing is for certain, Nick lived his life. He was blessed. He was loved.
Happy Orbit Day, Kiddo!!! I love you so much! Thank you for being my first baby.. thank you for teaching me how to be a parent! We will toast to you today around a fire pit, send off balloons, and burn some "Chinese cash" from China town so you have some birthday cash to spend! Love you sooo sooooo much!!!
PS... Thank you for sending the music box music to me while I was looking through pictures that sent me to the big box of pictures where I found the Hapgood pictures that I thought were lost! That was the best birthday present ever!!! (For those that don't know, there is absolutely NO music box in that room..so no reason for music box music to be playing in there.)
No comments:
Post a Comment