Nigel is 11

Wow – oh wow!! Nigel is ELEVEN!
I enjoy all of my children’s birthdays. I just do. His always seems to sneak up on me, however.
I have oodles of memories from each of their arrivals. But his birth-DAY is keenly ingrained in my mind. The details are distinct. His first days and weeks are not really a blur the way you think of new baby days as a blur. They are specific in a way I don’t wish on people. And all these years later I love to still bask in the mercy we saw that day.

We had cinnamon rolls and yogurt for breakfast.

We decided that even though the weather called for overcast skies and scattered showers (rain? here? this summer? whoda thunk?) that we would pack a lunch and head to Seabreeze just the same. I am SO glad we did. We had the place just about to ourselves. We steered clear of the water attractions and they got to ride the dry rides over and over and over. What’s more is that Johanna just scraped by as a 38”-er, and she was able to try a few of the bigger rides.

Johanna did NOT like the Bobsleds. She didn’t like going, “Up.”

I took my zoomier lens and got some great shots.

Hanny went on the “apple ride.” She begged to go on again. And again. She was cut off after the third ride.

Does she LOOK like she was enjoying it?

Home for angel hair pasta and Alfredo sauce with shrimp. These kids have GREAT taste!

A smattering of gifts.

Jammies from Nan. A movie from Nene.

A “Hungry Alligator” from Mom and Dad. There is a running joke in this house that Nigel is a hungry alligator. Or more exactly, that Nigel IS Hungry Alligator. It started when he hid under Johanna’s bed MONTHS ago and proclaimed he was a hungry alligator. She latched onto it big time and her room now has pictures of hungry alligators (drawn, printed out, etc.) and she actually calls Nigel, “Hungry Alligator,” instead of Nigel. She introduces him to people by that name. She told her speech evaluator her brothers’ names are, “Tew-art, and Hunny Ati-gader.”