Last year, perhaps on this very day, I wrote about a surprise birthday present for Mr 8, soon to be Mr 9. We so enjoyed surprising him with his present – and his delight has continued throughout the year so it was absolutely the gift-that-keeps-on-giving. On Friday when we took him out for an advance 10 year old celebration, he told us he is keeping last year’s gift forever, “for the memories”.

And now Mr 9 is nearly Mr 10. His current interests are many but one of them is matched to his suit-loving and dressing-up-not-down tendencies – at the moment it is rings. Rings for fingers, the more expensive-looking the better and possibly even, the more the better.  So in the birthday present pile this year will be a rose-gold (plated) band that I managed to buy on special many weeks after he coveted it in the local jewellery store. I’m not sure he’ll keep this gift forever 'for the memories' but it’s certainly giving us as much pleasure and also giving us the very best memories.

We've established a tradition in our family with our three boys - when they turn 10 we take them out on their own to somewhere delicious for dinner and to do something special. Mr 9 wanted Chinese food but the establishment needed to be upmarket enough for him to wear last year’s present. And he wanted to go to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.

My husband and I had a ball. It was so lovely to see Mr 9 totally delighted at the exhibition (which, by the way, although expensive, is a wonderful thing for fans of Harry Potter). And it's always great fun to make the time to focus on just one child in this special way. I can’t recount all the lovely things Mr 9 said and did on Friday night but highlights for me were:

• His insistence that a boy on the street was looking at him and wondering “why is that boy dressed up like that?”
• His many “thank you”s and extreme delight when we bought him some of the less expensive items in the Harry Potter exhibition gift shop (I can recommend chocolate frog $5 and Hedwig key ring $8 for a less expensive treat than wands that start at $50 and the many other double figure ‘toys’)
• His exclamation “Yes, there is a god! I love this place!” when we made it into the booked restaurant that had initially said they had no booking for us and no space. (For the record, it was Fat Buddha in the QVB and they turned out to be so generous and lovely – and also brought out a special birthday dessert for Mr 9 - see above)
• And his proud display on his bookshelf of the official photo of him taken at the entrance to the exhibition making him look like he is standing in the Hall of Mirrors

I have Friday night tagged in my memory as a highlight of my life, just like our 10 year old nights with the other two boys were. And I am sorry to be so soppy but I am filing this post under “Love".