Crosby is 10!

In Germany it's bad luck to wish people happy birthday or celebrate before the actual day. But, it's good for my sanity to do things on a schedule that works for me. As such, when the forecast called for snow last week, it also called for an early birthday adventure. Crosby and his friend Noah came home early from school to play in the snow, break a piñata, and eat hamburgers at Five Guys.

Crosby was home sick yesterday with the virus that knocked out 18 of 25 of the kids at the Kita. Lots of this at our house the last eight days (but who's counting).

For entertainment, we snuggled-up on the couch and looked at the photos when Crosby was born.

I mean, look how much fun we're having.

Part of my goal this academic year is to talk to Crosby about puberty in solidarity with the girls his age. The majority of the girls in his class have to deal with all sorts of hormonal changes while the boys get to blissfully trade Pokémon cards and run around carefree for another couple years. 

The conversations are still awkward. He likely isn't the understanding dude to his girl classmates that I would hope. But, we started the conversation before Crosby was totally mortified about learning about puberty with this mom. I can recommend these books: Guy Stuff and It's So Amazing. 

Crosby found the juxtaposition of Paul's excitement and my agony at his birth funny. We watched birth videos before his siblings were born, so the gruesome personal photos were not a shock. I'm thankful to seemingly have thread the awkward needle of sharing a meaningful experience with him while he was moderately interested. Next year will likely be too late. We went out to lunch at his favorite Japanese restaurant directly after seeing the photos. For the record, no one was too traumatized to eat. 

Technically Cros was healthy enough to go to school today. I scheduled a doctor's appointment to check his previously broken elbow (which is healing nicely) for this morning to give him a more relaxed birthday start. When the nurse saw it was his birthday she wrote him a sick note for the whole day. The day off might be his favorite birthday present. Our afternoon cake outing was the cherry on top.

Thank you to all the people who reached out to wish a happy birthday to the man who started the happy chaos at Team Biggs. 

This man is well loved.