So That Happened

We have a teenager in the house of Martin!  Whaaaaaaaaat?

Our resident book nerd and big brother extraordinaire has entered the forbidden teenage years...because I specifically forbade it...but nobody listens to me ;)

JP had "the best birthday ever.  Seriously.  Ever.  The best one of my life.  Seriously.  For reals."  and it was in big part due to this gift...

You can hear in the background Maggie yelling "But it's not even your 8th grade graduation!!"  We had told JP that he would get a phone at that point in his life, but we gave it to him earlier, as a thirteen year old gift instead, mostly because we need him to have a phone.  Selfish, I know!  We don't have a home phone, and there's times when Phil is running some kid somewhere, and I have to pick up another kid from somewhere else, and JP could be left home in charge if only he had a phone so we could all keep in touch.  But he doesn't need to know that :)  He has so many rules to follow - no taking the phone anywhere, no using it without asking us, no taking it to his bedroom at night, and no internet access.  So it's a dumbed-down smart phone.  We'll lighten up as he gets older, but first-borns get the strict version of mom and dad and babies get the lazy, tired version.

JP and I share a birthday, and he's definitely my most favorite birthday gift ever, but Phil gave me my second favorite birthday gift this year.  I cried when I laid eyes on her (part pregnancy hormones and part my mom started crying too):

A pregnant Mary!  Isn't she beautiful?

He also gave me a subscription to Netflix so we could watch Fuller House:

We've only seen the first episode so far, and it was cute!  Anybody else watching?

And that was our weekend, along with some basketball games and practices for Andrew and Eamon, some playground trips, a library trip, delivery of appliances, a sinus infection for moi, a men's retreat for Phil, live station of the cross rehearsal for JP, a First Communion meeting, a haircut for Maggie, and four dentist appointments.  I remember being a mom of littles just desperate for any activity to leave the house, and now I'm like, can we please just all stay at home forever??  But like I said, nobody listens to me ;)