When James turned ten his parents took him out to dinner and to a movie to celebrate the monumental occasion. He has such great memories of this two-on-one time and as soon as I heard about this Wigginton tradition I knew we should adopt it into our little Wig gig. Being a kid in a big family is such a gift, but it often means that alone time with your parents is in short supply (especially when you are the capable oldest child and your sisters are still baby monsters!) I knew this had the potential to be so memorable and went right to work planning a date perfectly fit for a ten-year-old Talmage.
After considering what felt like a million amazing ideas and making at least a hundred revisions after that, we planned a date that was interactive, personalized and what I hoped would be perfect for Talmage. I wanted him to come home with incredible memories but also with the knowledge that his mom and dad know and love him and planned a special day with only him in mind.
We decided on a day date because T would always choose breakfast over dinner and the daylight would give us more time to adventure. We started at the Griddle for pancakes that he insisted were three times the size of his head...I think he was right! I was so nervous about the rest of the day that I couldn't even eat my french toast and thought I might get sick, but luckily we could take all this delicious food to-go and it ended up feeding the family for the next two days!
After breakfast in Hollywood we headed downtown for our big adventure: riding the glass slide off the tallest building west of the Mississippi! I knew T wanted to do this because it was the grand raffle prize for our library's summer reading program last year and he's talked about it a few times since. It doesn't surprise me that this was on his bucket list because he's adventurous and loves some good bragging rights! The views from the top were amazing and the weather was really showing off--we could see everything! As for the slide--wowzers, it really was a glass slide 70 stories high! I thought it was terrifying, James didn't think it was too bad and Talmage thought it was the funnest thing ever. He must have gone down the slide a dozen times or more.
From there we headed to a swanky bowling alley and bowled two games while dining on pizza and endless soda. This was so fun because we were all cheering and bantering and really just enjoying each other's company. Our last stop was to Beverly Hills to walk through the Lamborghini dealership. I know that sounds silly, but I'm not kidding when I say that T's favorite part of the day was probably that last (and free) stop. And for goooood reason. I had called the dealership about a week before our visit just to make sure we were allowed to visit and the receptionist assured me that we were more than welcome to come in, but that the Lamborghini's remained locked so we could just see the outside of the cars. That was great with us! So you can imagine my surprise and delight when on his birthday date one of the salesmen took an interest in T and not only let him sit in one of the cars, but allowed him to start it right there in the dealership. T started a $600,000 car!!! He immediately got out and said, "Mom, I can never wash my hands again. I just touched the inside of a real Lamborghini!" I'm so grateful for nice people in this world who strive to bring joy to others. I know it was just sitting in a car but for my lambo-loving boy, that made his birthday!
We were gone from 8:30 to 3:30 and then T was off to a birthday party for his friend and James and I were left talking about how much you can accomplish when you're adventuring with just one kid, who is basically a mini-man! We had such a fun day, T a great birthday date, and a new Wiggy birthday tradition was born. Hooray for 10 year olds!
We all thought he was getting one giant pancake with strawberries and whip cream. We were wrong!
I told them numerous times that it was like I was going on a date with the same two men who are twenty years apart. Honestly, they are SO alike it's uncanny.
I mean, could I have gotten a better shot? Nope!
Oh, I love him!
I don't want to brag, but after a slow start in the first game I chased down the win in game two. Sorry boys, but my name wasn't "Bomb Mom" for nothing, haha!
T's happy place.
That smile!!! This is something none of us will ever forget.
Maybe this will be yours someday, T. I hope it will be!
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