my first boy

the days knowing him are fab: he gets up at 8:29 am, everyday is black levis and vans, his love of panera mac and cheese, what he tells me about his day or thoughts on the way home from school, how he does not see a problem with wearing white socks with black pants to church, he won't eat leftovers, loves his family deeply, when i hold his hand he always pretends to bite my hand...

last year i gave him tickets to david copperfield. it is what he wanted. almost a year later, the last weekend before he turned 13, i bought the tickets and we were planning on going. an hour before leaving he was getting upset with his 7 year old brother. i asked him to stop, he did not. it is sometimes like he cannot stop himself. it turned into an argument. i pulled the plug on the evening events. dev was sad, he did not understand. i tried to help him understand. then we put on pajamas and just watched copperfield online. after confusion at the "illusions" and laughter we decided that we really did not miss much.

on his birthday i set up a scavenger hunt for him to illustrate how i love his emotional, spiritual, physical and mental selves. it began with a card instructing him to take a can of silly string and lure his brother outside to douse him. dev has a silly side that only a few people see; i am one of the few. (and deac is in black thermals in full sun because he was being a ninja.)

then the spiritual part i had him look up my favorite scripture of 2 nephi 9:41 of how the lord will "employeth no servant there"...that he will be there personally and not have some random dude taking on the duty of chatting it up with me about my time here on earth. for what it is worth i like the idea. he then had to text me his favorite scripture before i would give him the next clue.  he said his was the same as mine. i was not sure if i should be proud/flattered, or call a serious foul on that whimp out move.  i let it go and gave him the next clue.

then the physical part: a gift of new Vans, hat and swimsuit.  then the mental. i led him to a new rubix cube. like the genuine old school rubix cube he has been wanting. then he had to text me his understanding of the law of entropy and how it applies to him.  he looked it up and did not quite understand so we discussed how all things in a state of order are heading to a state of disorder, and it takes an active force against that to keep things in order.  this law applies to his emotional, spiritual, physical and mental well being.  he must assert an active force to keep these parts of him in order and healthy.  then he was led to his final gift of some cash money (since that is all he really wants). he was jazzed, probably even more jazzed since his siblings were both jealous of him.

then we made home made waffles (mind you i still had the two babies on my own at this point. a little bit of a fiasco.) when the family came in town we did a birthday dinner at his place of choice...i was thinking hibachi, sette bello...nah, he picked red robin. where the manager's jokes are always the same, he says to deven about me "hey, it's nice your sister brought you here." and to the 8 week old "no shoes no service buddy." but i guess their mac and cheese is phenom. i take his word for it.

i am blessed for him. i hope i am raising a boy that will be a good man. if nothing else, i hope he knows how madly i love him and plan on being his boss FOREVER. (note to his future wife, see my veiny hand on his arm in the first photo???)