Happy 13th Birthday, Lewie!

In a flash, just like that, I woke up on August 11th 2021, and standing before me was my 13 year-old boy.  I'm not sure how this once 7lb bundle became a 5'5" teenager, but here we are,13 years years later, starting a brand new chapter.

I have now said goodbye to the baby years, the toddler years, the "little boy" years, and now the "tween" years.  As I think about and start preparing for the "teen years," I realize these are the years of finishing up middle school, high school, and gulp...starting college.  These are the years of friends, driving, independence, and "thinking" he's all grown up even when he is still learning what it means to be an adult.  (Heck, I'm 45 and still trying to figure out what it means to be an adult!)

I am extremely grateful that 2020 gave me a chance to spend lots of time with my 12 year-old.  With him being a distance learning student and me working from home, I had a chance to see him pretty much all day-everyday;  I wouldn't change that for the world.  

He learned a little more about the work that I do as a college administrator, and I had a chance to see all the assignments he was working on, whether it was learning about slave ships, human rights, saving the Amazon Rainforest, or growing kidney beans.  Indeed, I was immersed in all of his subjects, with science probably being the hardest, followed by math, history, and English.  

For gym, he was required to post videos of himself exercising.  We practiced yoga moves together, and then we both tried to learn to do pushups together.  (I'm still terrible at them.)  When Daddy and I couldn't help, we asked our physical therapist friend to meet with him and give him tips.  Over the course of six months, this kid was doing ten pretty good pushups all by himself!

Summer, of course, provided the respite we all needed from wake-up, eat breakfast, log-on, eat lunch, log-off, log-on, submit homework, log off, eat dinner, go to bed, repeat.  We needed a break to those 12 hour days in front of the computer between work and homework!  

When the vaccine became available for twelve year-olds in May, we lunged at the chance!  I took Lewie to get his first shot and then brought him with me to my college campus to see our set-up for Commencement.  "That's a lot of chairs," he said in awe. 

"Yes, and that's with limiting all graduates to four guests each," I said,  "Usually on Commencement Day, we have twice as many people as we will have this year.  One day we'll be watching you graduate from these seats, too."

Once we were all vaccinated, the fun resumed--sleepovers, amusement parks, restaurants, birthday parties.  It felt like we couldn't jam enough into these summer months.  And then, of course, I made our family go on a two-week vacation to make up for "the 2020 vacation that never was."

Lewie celebrated his official day with a trip to Lake Compounce, but then he requested a "sleep-over party" with friends on the weekend.  We couldn't get all friends to come (after all, some had vacations, too), but we made the best of it.  From June through August, he was able to have swimming sleepover parties, go to amusement parks, and spend valuable time with friends, and that's really all that mattered (since last year, none of that was possible).

This birthday arrives with Lewie being a little bit taller, having a deeper voice, and being more interested in spending time with friends than ever.  (Last week, we went to the AT&T store, so he could get his first phone, and I promised we will be shopping for a desk in the future, so he could have his own computer workspace--instead of being in the kitchen.)  As I do every year, we ended his birthday celebration with "a birthday interview."

Q:  What is your favorite color?
A:  "Orange." (But, he likes purple now, too.)

Q:  What is your favorite book?
A:  We've been reading Pax by Sara Pennypacker, however his response: "I still like Humphrey books."  This is a book series about a hamster by Betty G. Birney.

Q:  What is your favorite cartoon?
A:  "The Amazing World of Gumball." (This is the same as last year.)

Q:  What is your favorite movie?
A:  We watched a few Muppet movies this year, and I made him watch Big.  However, he's really enjoying the Netflix series, "Lost in Space."  Actually, we're all enjoying watching it as a family.

Q:  What is your favorite board game?
A:  "UNO Attack." 

Q:  What is your favorite computer game?
A:  "Minecraft" and "Portal."  (He's been learning how to code in Minecraft using Java.)

Q:  What is your favorite place or favorite vacation?
A:  "I liked Olympic National Park, but Yellowstone is really a fan-favorite."

Q:  What is your favorite thing to do at school?
A:  "Math."  (This is a new answer for us!!)

Q:  Who is your favorite teacher?
A:  "To be honest with you...still Miss Drayton, my second grade teacher."

Q:  What is your favorite sport?
A:  "Gaga Ball."

Q:  What is your favorite food?
A:  "French Toast." (This is the same as last year.  His favorite restaurant is Friendly's.)

Q:  What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?
A:  "Chocolate."  (Of course, he likes birthday cake flavor, too.)

Q:  What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
A:  "You mean, Mother Dearest?  Walking with you." (He calls us Mother Dearest, Father Dearest, and Grandma Dearest because he thinks it makes him sound British.)

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A:  "I still want to do something with YouTube or with coding.  To be honest with you, I'd like to find a way to implement the two of them together."

Q:  What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
A:  "You mean, Father Dearest?  Swimming."

Q:  What is your favorite saying this year?
A:  "Pog Champ!  It comes from a meme."

Q:  What is your favorite moment as a twelve year-old?
A:  "The day I came home from vacation.  Don't get me wrong.  I really loved going to Olympic National Park, but two weeks was just way too long."

I think the last comment really says it all.  At age 13, I'm starting to lose this kid to the world of friends.  Whether he likes it or not, he's still going to spend a lot of time with Hubby, Grammy, and me, but I do see more outings in the near future that includes friends.  For now, I'm going to share my first favorite memory of his 13 year-old existence--a memory I will cherish because it shows that he isn't as grown up as he thinks...

A good friend of his went on vacation for the weekend and posted a picture of himself in a Japanese restaurant.  "I think he went to Japan," Lewie told me.

Me laughing: "He couldn't have gone to Japan.  He just left 8 hours ago for a weekend vacation."

"I don't know then.  He's at some place called Mohegan.  Is that a state?"

Me laughing again.  "You mean the Mohegan Sun Casino?  No, that's not a state, and your friend went on vacation about an hour away from here."

Thank goodness, Lewie and his friends still act as silly as can be.  He's not ready for the boring world of adulthood yet!