9-Year-Old's Wish List (BOY)

[Note: This is a boy who LOVES technology and has an older brother and sister to expose him to the finer and more expensive things in life - note the absence of Legos or Star Wars or games & toys targeted and marketed to this age group...Still, it's a fine example of a Christmas Wish List, verbatim!]

9yo BOY's Wish List

1. $$$!
2. Premium Membership on Webs.com (Enhanced Premium)
3. $50 iTunes Money
4. My Own Macbook Air
5. My Own Phone
6. RC Helicopter
7. RC Car
8. Nerf Gun
9. PIZZA!!!!!
10. ROOT BEER!!!!!
11. The Schools Getting Rid of Homework 4 Good.
12. More Money!!!
13. A Perfect Christmas Tree
14. More Subscribers on My Website
15. The Mind Flex
16. Outrageous Builders Club on ROBLOX
17. A bigger allowance
18. A pet Golden Retriever
19. A successful ROBLOX game
20. My own DSi
21. An awesome Christmas
22. An iPod Touch 3G
23. More Webs.com Credits
24. Advertisements for My Website
25. A Go-Kart
26. Ideas for my next year's Wish List
27. XBOX 360
28. My sister's and my meter ideas for my own [iPhone] App.
    [See Mom & Dad's Luv Meter FREE iPhone App at: www.LuvShaker.com]

The Last Sleepover. Ever.

4am - I started out with quiet confidence: been there, done that. I could handle this too. I was fully prepared, shopped, stocked, cleaned and organized for an 18-hour sleepover (4pm drop-off to 10am pick-up): Six 11-year-old girls, in celebration of Drama Queen's 11th birthday.

The first child showed up at 3pm (note: an hour early), while I was still cleaning up, but okay, no problem. We already had one friend staying over since Wednesday, so we had 3 at 3; 4 at 4; and 6 by 6pm, when the late ones arrived, followed by Dear Hubby, my sole adult reinforcement, at 6:30pm.

They swam in the pool; they played games. Much to my delight -- and reassurance for Moms everywhere that maybe our kids are not the sugar-hyped, junk food maniacs we all fear (in guilt), they DEVOURED the fruit tray and all the re-stock I had in the fridge, so that was great. And then we ordered pizza. And then we had cake & ice cream, with sprinkles. And Shirley Temples (made with Sprite Zero -- I tried). Followed by movies and popcorn, lots and lots of popcorn.

The real fun began about 11pm, after the first movie, when they settled on a game of indoor Hide & Seek, in the dark, through the whole house. That was noisy. We suggested another movie. We got everyone settled -- a sea of air mattresses, sleeping bags and blankets in our family room, which is open to the rest of the house, a very open floorplan, all on one level. Hubby and I went to bed about 11:30pm.

1:30am - Second movie done, five of the six moved into the living room, by hubby's NASCAR TV, to play Truth or Dare -- much giggling and screeching ensued. One of the six was actually asleep in the family room. I chased them back into Drama Queen's bedroom, which lasted about 20 minutes, before I went back in and suggested they put on another movie -- back to the family room.

3:30am - Hubby and I are sound asleep. One of the girls appears at my bedside and wakes me up, which is pretty damn creepy. Everybody else is (finally) asleep in the family room. This one can't sleep. She wants to go home. I negotiate weakly for several minutes, offer several alternatives, no luck -- I let the girl call her parents, and her dad picks her up at 3:45am. Fortunately, they are less than a mile away.

There's obviously a background here, a pattern that had been mentioned in passing and brushed off just as lightly. Turns out, she's only made it through two sleepovers in her life, and those were when she was so far from home she had to tough it out (she stayed up all night). I dryly suggested, with that knowledge, maybe we could figure it out by 11pm or 11:30 next time.

So here I am, at 4am. No getting back to sleep for me, but at least I only have five screeching 11-year-olds to feed in the morning. They are making pancakes. That ought to be fun.

Six hours to go...

CAMP MOMMY 2008 - Rainy Sunday

It has been a lovely Sunday -- buckets of rain, all day, which is nice (really!), to snuggle in for the day. We watched the NASCAR race at Chicago last night in its entirety on Tivo -- Kyle Busch won (again), although Jimmie Johnson gave him a run in the last 10 laps and we were hoping-against-hope, cheering on the former champion (who has yet to win a Sprint Cup Race this year), but that Kyle Busch ("The Wild Thing") is on fire this year and he pulled it off in the final lap on a re-start to win again (his 7th Sprint Cup win this year -- he is #1 in points for the Sprint Cup Chase and quite likely to be the Champion this year).

Tony Stewart (8yo ADHD Phenom's favorite) came in 5th place, which was exciting, because he had to get out of the car early last week, at Daytona, and turn it over to a back-up driver, which is highly unusual, because he was sick. He was feeling better by Thursday, when he rocked the NASCAR world by announcing he was leaving the Home Depot #20car and Joe Gibbs Racing to become co-owner and driver for Haas CNC Racing next year, a team that has struggled this year. This is HUGE news in the NASCAR community, so if you are not a NASCAR fan -- now you know!

Last week was a great week for CAMP MOMMY:
1 - It was a short week, since we got home from our Five-Day Family Road Trip late-late on Monday.
2 - On Wednesday, we received the Discovery Toys® MarbleWorks -- The Best Toy EVER, for 8yo ADHD Phenom's birthday on July 4th.
3 - We didn't know it at the time, but that began three days of GREAT TOYS, by coincidence, because on Thursday, we ended up bringing home two gerbils and their whole Critter Trail set-up, with the roll-around-the-house exercise ball, for soon-to-be 11yo Drama Queen's birthday on July 18th.
4 - On Friday, I finally scored the new Wii Fit, by accident and coincidence at Target, which we have been searching for since it came out in May -- fitness & fun for the whole family!
5 - On Saturday, we lost 13yo Puberty Angst Boy (temporarily), off to Florida with his great-aunt and her grandson (Camp Joan) for a week at the beach AND G'Ma & G'Pa blew through town for a quick visit and a very nice lunch at the Park Tavern at Piedmont Park in Atlanta.

We are looking forward to a terrific week, with Drama Queen's 11th birthday on Friday and a full week of fun events and celebration through Sunday -- I don't know how we ended up on the "Full Octave of the Birthday" celebration plan for each of the kids, every year, especially since we have two birthdays, two weeks apart, in July, but I think it's my mother-in-law's fault (she loves celebration & indulgence!). I can't complain too much, since I manage to enjoy the Full Octave plan around my birthday, too, but it certainly makes for a busy July every year.

And then, AND THEN...hubby and I celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary on August 6th, which we are actually celebrating with a long weekend get-away (totally non-NASCAR), employing all of our friends & family to help cover house & home, kids & dog from July 30th thru August 3rd, so that we'll be back that first week of August for all the critical back-to-school shopping and activities leading up to BACK TO SCHOOL on Monday, August 11th.

I told you we were in the homestretch here in Atlanta...