Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Happy Birthday!

It's the birthday of one of the kids in this house. The tallest one. The one who is obsessed with Star Wars Lego. He is officially a teenager.

Look - I even made him a Clone Trooper helmet cake for his party today. Last year it was a hamburger replica - this year it's a helmet replica. He wanted it standing up but I said no. My powers of cake making and decorating are tired right after Christmas, and the idea of making a standing up helmet cake sounded entirely too strenuous. 












All week now I've had a clip from Max's Dragon Shirt in my head when I think of him being a teen (mostly because I read this one to Max 4 zillion times when he was little)...it's the part when Max has lost his sister in a big department store and thinks he's spotted her, but in fact it's someone else: "It was a teenager. Max screamed." Every single time I'd read that bit I would punctuate that line with a little shriek and my Max would laugh delightedly. Even now we've been known to say, a propos of nothing: "It was a teenager! Max screamed!" although Max doesn't laugh with quite the same appreciation (he's too cool now). But it still amuses us all.

Happy Birthday Max! Lucky number thirteen. All year long.

13 comments:

Suji said...

Happy Birthday Max! Here's hoping teenhood will be awesome for you and not too stressful for your mom (smile)!

Kate said...

Happy Birthday Max from Jake and company!

shaunms said...

Congratulations on all of you making it this far! Love the cake.

Heather said...

Fantastic cake!! You know ,my mom still has the R2-D2 cake pan she used for my brother's birthday cake back in the day. ;-)I hope the day was special for all of you.
When W turned 13 last year it was a really...mmmm, bittersweet (can't think of a better way to describe it although I'm sure there is something that means closer to what I felt) time for me - my firstborn (my baby!!) already a teen, so much more independent, one step closer towards adulthood! And to me it seemed as though it was only a blink ago that he was just a tiny baby. Are you going through a similar time/reaction?

sheila said...

Thanks Suji! I am keeping my fingers crossed, that's for sure. And I've banned "huh?" as a response to me calling him!

sheila said...

Kate and Jake! How ARE you doing? I was thinking about you this holiday. The kids were talking about Jake, funnily enough. Katie remembers him very clearly. And she is extremely curious about Jewish habits and customs.

Shaun! Nice to hear from you. I am glad to see that the moving in is going along well. Merry Christmas.

sheila said...

An R2D2 cake pan, Heather? Wowee. That would be wild! I had to make do with a sharp knife and a 1/2" Clone Trooper helmet as a guide. It was a little tense at time getting the lines straight.

I do feel quite nostalgic. Melancholic almost. My time as a new mum has passed. And now that it HAS passed I feel sad that it's gone. I think that's the bittersweet bit, isn't it? We're heading into a different permutation of being a mother. Instead of watching Thomas the Tank Engine and going to places where trains stop and go I'm watching shoulders get broad and hair on upper lips grow and hearing voices deepen. It's almost disorienting. It happened too fast in some ways. Thank goodness the twins are still little. I'm not ready for all this!

Anonymous said...

Hey! Happy birthday to Max!

13... Wow... I'm feeling that sneaking up on me as well.

Sheila, I am so very impressed with your cake making talent! May I request a Han Solo cake for my birthday? ;-)

sheila said...

What? Han with a flowing white shirt? And that devil may care look on his face? And his cheeky smile? Sigh. I just sat through ANOTHER showing of Return of the Cheddar, err, Jedi, so I have his image BURNED in my memory...burned I tell you!

Anonymous said...

That be the Han I'm talking about. Gee, I guess he was my first white shirt, although his was more a scoundrel-ish cream colour.
I think I'll have to watch me some original Star Wars, since that is an image I wouldn't mind burned in my memory ;-) Probably why I can't get into the newer ones - it just isn't Star Wars without Han. Not even Ewan helps. Plus, every time I see young Anakin, I can't help but yell out things like "You are going to turn so bad! You are evil! Don't trust him Obi-Wan! He's a liar!", which makes no one want to watch it with me for some strange reason.

sheila said...

He was such a cutie, wasn't he? My kids all refer to the movies as numbers and I am CONSTANTLY asking them "Which was is episode 2? An old one or a new one?" I've become the Irritating Adult from my childhood. Sigh.

I totally agree on the Anakin Badness too. Everytime I see him I think "You're going to melt in some hot lava and look really gross. You might be a crap actor but is that ANY way to go, I ask you? Think about it!" And of course at the end of Return of the Cheddar when he takes his mask off he looks nothing like the Melted Anakin of whateverthehell episode he was in with Palpatine. Nothing.

Boy, I think I've seen these movies too many times. My kids are all obsessed with plot and detail and I think I listen to them too much. I shouldn't know this much about a movie...

Anonymous said...

Know too much? Never!

I was browsing the shelves of Chapters before Christmas and saw a complete Star Wars Encyclopedia and was soooo tempted to pick it up. With it, I would seriously kick heinie at our Star Wars Trivial Pursuit!

I'm always confused by the numbering as well, so I call it the original ones (or the good ones ;-) and the new ones (or the overly computer animated special effect ones). It blows my mind when kids these days (<--official old lady speak) say the new ones are so much better then the original 3. Sad, sad, sad... ;-)

Heather said...

Melancholic almost. My time as a new mum has passed.

Yes, that is it exactly. I knew you'd know. ;-) Last year I made some play dough (we had some young friends coming and I thought they would enjoy it too) and I couldn't help thinking - this might be the last time I make play dough. And then all the times of making play dough and the fun we had with it went through my head. it was enough to bring me to tears, I tell you. :-(

I SO enjoyed being a mama to young ones and they are just changing too, too fast. (not that I don't enjoy them immensely now too, it's just that feeling my time with littles is done! ) Whaaaaaa!!

booffr - now that's a word. I could use a word like that in my arsenal. ;-)