I cannot believe we've lived through this - well, not totally unscathed, but more or less happy - but the boys will turn 18 this week. Wow. They were my valentines 18 years ago and they still are. They're getting ready to graduate high school and geez, I wish I could put their pics up here for you guys to see how handsome they are, but I don't have a myspace page, so I can't.
My problem right now is finding an 18th birthday gift for them. Christmas was so soon in the past and I want to do something special.
Do any of you have any good 18th birthday gift ideas that I could steal? I'm so lost this year on this gift.
Hmmmm, I'll have to think back to 4yrs ago when my S turned 18! maybe i'll ask him at dinner tonight. Like Ellies' ideas though. You h ave to buy two of whatever tho! lol
how about those mini cam corders?? there not too much?? maybe not. Boys dont seem to like the camera stuff as much as girls.
Will be thinking!
Be Happy for this Moment, This Moment is your Life
Birthdays are good times for guys to get all kinds of gadgets. I'm sure they will love anything you decide on.
But I encourage you to also write some things down for them. Maybe in a card they can keep. Maybe on the background or matte of a photo in a frame. Or some kind of keepsake shadowbox of little things from over the years. They like goodies. But they also need something they can look at that will remind them how much they are loved, and how special they are ... each one of them.
Thanks Karen, thanks Ellie, I'm so much in a quandry here.
I want to take Jake to Nashville for spring break. He's a huge country music fan and my niece lives there. He loves hanging out with family (especially mine - so proud am I) and that may be what I give him. But for Jack - a technophobe, I need a different idea. And with Jake it may be that a trip with mom for the last time (sniff) we might bond really well, so that is what I'm leaning towards. But I'm not sure.
This is so hard for me, because I want to make it special because it is.
Happy, WOW, I can't believe the boys are that old. I remember when you were worrying about them driving.
How about concert tickets for the 3 of you? Make it a night with dinner, concert, etc. If you're loaded, make reservations for them to go somewhere fabulous for spring break.
Or: Engraved key chains Digital cameras Laptop Ipods with Itunes cards
My D loves stars so for her 18th I bought her a white/gold necklace with a star filled with diamonds. I've never seen her without it since I gave it to her.
Hey Happy, I will tell you that my 18th birthday gifts from my mom were terrific. Well, one of them was......
See here's the thing, she got me some value based gift, don't even remember what it was at this point. The second thing she gave me was a scrapbook of my life with her. My parents were divorced when I was 13. My mom put together a photo album that started with baby pictures and ended with recent photos. In it was birthday cards, letters to my grandpa, letters to her from camp, report cards, etc....
It was by far the coolest gift that she gave me. I still look at it sometimes now at 39 years old and remember how bonded my mother and I were and how important that mother son relationship truly is. I don't know if you have the means to do this, but it sure meant a ton to me.
Your idea is great, but that's what I plan for graduation. I used my company christmas gift Best Buy gift card to buy a thingy that converts home movies to DVD's. But that will be my graduation gift to them. I have a full 4 months to get THAT gift done.
I plan to set it to music and show them their life in movies. I took so many of them that it will take the full 4 months to get that done. At least, lol.
The big thing that I find when watching home movies is that I took them all and I'm not in them. I have to find a way to include my voice because I'm the one behind the camera.
When I go back and watch them, I cry. It's so emotional for me. They talk to me, look to me, smile at me, laugh to me, but can't see me on the film. Their dad wasn't there. He chose not to be. I don't want to show them that. But I do want to show them what they did and how beautiful they were and are.
Their first roll-overs, first smiles, first walks, first snow, first birthdays, first everythings are there. But when I look at them , their dad is not there. Just me and them.
Is it this hard for you guys to go back to day one and see this?
How nice to hear from you. I took the boys to see a concert for their 13th - a few days after X left us. We saw Jimmy Buffett. I'm not loaded, but I think I could swing a spring break to do. That is a thought.
I gave Jake a laptop for Christmas, and Jack got an Ipod with loads of Itunes cards.
Queenie, a girl is easy for me, but a boy is not. I can think it terms of girly things. Boys are harder. I think I will ask Jake if he wants to go to Nashville with me. If not, I will spring for a spring break deal. And as far as Jack gowas, a spring break deal with me paying may just be the ticket.
And funny you should ask if it's hard looking at all that old stuff of my D. YES!!! I've been doing it for the last week or so because I'm downloading a bunch of pics to put on a digital frame for my mom.
Yup, her in a high chair while I pick lice out of her hair. Her, covered in chicknpox medicine. Her sitting on the potty while her Dad plays his guitar and sings "My Girl Likes to Potty All The Time." Some make me laugh while others make me cry. Whole different life, huh?
