Magic, Huge Milestones, And Disappointing Sea Monkey Myths

Two weeks from now, we’ll celebrate the Fourth of July in the US. We’ll ooh and ahh our Independence Day, fireworks, and, in our family, the huge milestone of a first double-digit birthday. It’s hard to believe Tucker’s turning 10 years old this summer, and while all the Fourths of July are my favorite, 10 is a big one, and a milestone birthday I hope is magical for each of us. 

While I carry each of my son’s birthday celebrations with a combination of joy and a bittersweet realization that I’ll never hold him on my hip again, he’s now at an age where he’ll remember this year’s planned trip to Yellowstone and The Tetons with his cousins.

One day, after my generation is gone, I hope he’ll talk about this year’s trip and want to take his own children to see Old Faithful. Maybe, we’ll spot a random buffalo running down the road like the year he turned one, and he can tell them about that, too.

Magic, Huge Milestones, And Disappointing Sea Monkey Myths

Tonight, we’re in a hotel room in Virginia. It’s been exactly one year from when we were in a similar hotel up the street waiting for a new refrigerator to be delivered before heading west to move to Colorado.

A little boy and his dad just got on the elevator with me.  I’d guess he’s around three years old. “Do you want to push the button?” I asked him. “I need floor two.” He pushed two and then jumped up and down, so excited. He had a bandaid on his forehead and I thought about Tucker’s fourth birthday celebration at the Outer Banks, and how we skipped urgent care for a cut on his chin.

It was 9pm, after all. He still has a scar. The little boy’s dad told him to press four on the elevator after pressing two for me, and he jumped up and down excited all over again.

I thought about how Tucker’s earlier birthdays, and how he no longer cares who pushes the button on the elevator, which made me sad. But, also, glad. Because now-Tucker is the kid who asks whether something’s wrong when you’re lost in thought. 

Now Tucker says “I’m so nervous and excited I’m almost nauseous,” as we pull into the townhouse community to see our home here after a year. We’ll add items to the list of repairs to make while our renters are vacationing, making their own summertime and Fourth of July memories.

“I hope my room isn’t disappointing,” he says. I think about how he’d once have cried because of things he was unable to say, and I think about all that’s meant in his sentence. Thoughts and feelings so similar to the ones I’ve been holding in since we landed at Dulles.

I, too, hope his room, and our house here aren’t disappointing. It’s a weird thing to “come home again,” when you aren’t sure which is more home. The one you made before, or the one we’re making now. I suppose both are equally home, although I prefer the fewer bugs and no humidity in Colorado. I prefer the community we built in Virginia. It’s a both thing, I guess.

When it comes to our home and Tucker’s room being possibly disappointing, well… Even if they are, we’ve got a huge milestone birthday coming up that we’ll celebrate with fireworks, cake, cousins, and memory-making (hopefully of the non-urgent-care variety) moments.

There’s a lot to be said for those moments made of magic, huge milestones, and even disappointing sea monkey myths, which we haven’t quite gotten to.

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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday. As I posted in our Facebook group earlier, “Tonight’s prompt is “What I love about 4th of July (preparing for July 4).” HOWEVER. We flew to DC yesterday and are doing home repairs, seeing friends, and today’s the first day I’ll step into the office’s physical work space in a year! (gulp)
Tonight, we’re having a pizza picnic with one of Tucker’s good friends, and I’m not sure when I’ll be back at the hotel to post. Therefore, what do you think of this? Link up a new or old post about 4th of July or summertime in general. Sound good and lazy? Yay! Hope to see you there.” 

I’d planned on simply linking up my old post about disappointing sea monkey myths, but (!) here I am with my introduction to that post becoming a post of its own. Which, I suppose is fitting to parenting, life, and an upcoming huge milestone birthday.