Happy 15th Birthday to My First Baby

Wow....15 years already have gone by since my first little tiny baby was born. I am sure that because he was the first, that the memories of his birth are so vivid. The little striped hat, putting Vaseline on his dry little hands, the srunched up face with the already smart looking eyes staring back at me, the itty bitty toes, the soft, velvety skin on his cheeks, and soft fuzzy hair on his head. Now that little tiny baby is taller than I am! He is certainly not a baby anymore.

Alex was always a happy little boy with an easy smile and smart, quick working brain. With the exception of a short, but very unhappy stint in middle school that seemed to go on forever (but was less than 18 months), his personality is quite similar to that of my little boy of more than a decade ago. He is a sweet, kind, brilliant, and helpful teenager. All of his siblings love him and look up to him. And though taller than they, he does not look down on them, but enjoys their company (even though he will sometimes want for nothing more than to run away from all the chaos and noise). What a nice boy!

We indulged him today by going to morning church (his first birthday request), then meeting up with the grandparents and Barb & Alan at Houlihan's for lunch. We were also there to celebrate Bob's birthday, which is a mere 2 days from now. Eating at a restaurant is a luxury for us, one that we rarely do with all of the kids. At 11:15 am, on a rainy Sunday morn, the baby asleep in his seat, there were not many other patrons inside, so the time felt fairly stress-free and fun....not too many worries about noise were required. The kids loved eating out, Alex got to eat ribs, and Bob got to have some birthday chicken fajitas. I tried a Mojito, and decided that I could make a better one at home with all of my fresh mint. I'll need to figure out a non-alcoholic version....maybe a slushie kind to give to the kids. The mint seriously may overtake our home one of these days when we are not looking.

Alex's girlfriend spent the afternoon with him, and we inhaled some banana cake with chocolate frosting before everyone began going out our revolving front door. The kids had their regular Sunday evening rehearsals at church, meaning a 45 minute round trip drive x3. Bob dropped off 2 of the kids on one of those drives on his way to Michael's hockey this evening x2. I made it to Michael's second hockey at 9pm, after feeding and bathing my very dirty children before sending them off to bed, and Alex's quick little present opening session (held in my bathroom as I was washing the girls' hair in the tub). I was impressed with Michael's hockey play tonight...he played so well, and skated so quickly. He was totally into the game, and there was no indication that he had just come off of a heavy duty advanced team game just an hour prior.

What a jam-packed day, as Sundays typically are around here. Good-night, all, and again, Happy, Happy Birthday, Alex!