Some of you may remember when we had Max back on 2001 via c-section. My subsequent attempt at a VBAC with Mason (now age 7) resulted in one of my best selling books, DON’T CUT ME AGAIN! True Stories About Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).

We can’t believe Max is already 12 years old! He is such a helpful and sweet young man. And, oddly, he likes to clean his room! For his birthday, he wanted to visit the local arcade. It’s in the Bradenton mall, which isn’t located in the greatest part of town. I took Max, Mason, and their friend, Karen, and we met Ali and Justin there. I am not a fan of videogames so I followed them all around, making sure the little ones didn’t get lost. Before leaving the mall, the kids all filled up on cinnamon and sugar pretzels. They had a blast!

We came home and Max wanted to open his presents. He is such a sweetheart that he always asks for inexpensive and reasonable gifts for his birthday and holidays. For example, he asked for a used set of Minecraft monsters he found on Ebay for only 99 cents. He also asked for “miscellaneous Legos” because he makes his own designs. I found two sellers offering thousands of Legos for very reasonable prices. When Max opened those, he was thrilled! None of us has ever seen that many Legos at one time! He asked for some other figures that were reasonably priced as well. After he opened his gifts Ali went to work on his beautiful and delicious chocolate raspberry birthday cake. Yum!

That night, we went bowling with our neighbor friends who have a daughter Max’s age, along with Frank’s girlfriend and friend (Frank was working). There were 10 of us total and we ate really awful bowling alley pizza and had so much fun! We usually do a lot of trash talking there, even though we are not good bowlers by any stretch of the imagination. When our neighbor walked in with his own bowling ball and shoes, we knew we were all in big trouble. He beat the pants off all of us. He even beat the kids, who were using bumpers on their lane.

Also for his birthday, Max wanted to stay over at Ali and Justin’s house to watch movies. Mason wanted to stay there, too. They all camped out on the living room floor with movies, popcorn, and candy, and Richard and I had a very rare night alone. The problem is…I can’t sleep when that happens. I used to think it was hotel rooms because I have very hard time sleeping when Richard and I take a trip together. But, that night we slept at home and I was lying awake almost all night in bed. So, it must have something to do with being away from the children. Or, maybe the house was just too darned quiet, like hotel rooms.

How am I ever going to sleep when they all move out on their own?! 🙁

This week’s Masonism:

Mason was flipping channels the other night, and stopped on “Cops” because police were chasing a man on foot. We call that show “Trash TV” because of the subject matter and, while many parents probably won’t allow their young children to watch it, I find it’s an excellent resource for showing children what really happens when people break the law. All those after school specials and public service messages can’t even compare to watching a real meth addict with rotting teeth being hauled away in a police car, seeing an assault suspect being tasered and tackled in the street by police, or watching how drugs and violence victimize the innocent children of drug addicts and criminals on a daily basis. This method of parenting seems to be working as we have three adult children, ages 21, 22 and 26, and none of them has ever been arrested. (Yes, I just knocked on wood!)

After a few minutes of watching Cops, Mason turned to me, and asked, “Mommy, does marijuana make you mentally challenged?”

Follow Angela: twitter | facebook | linkedin