My boy

I know....I KNOW....you're going to start calling me a liar.  While you're at it you might as well call me a bad mom too!  I sorta, kinda, completely blanked on the fact that today is my son John's 13th birthday!  I mean, I KNOW it's today, February 5.  A mother never forgets the day(s) that she gave birth on.  But in the everyday scheme of things I became focused on everyday things and the day started out like any other.  Since I was on a roll in my last post, I'll just blame it on this blasted winter weather!!  Yeah, let's just blame EVERYTHING on that!!  We did get our snow day as I suspected would happen.  We even received the call last night so the kids stayed up late & slept in late this morning.  This also meant that I was going to have more flexibility than usual with my morning routine.  I could sleep in (if you call 6:30 a.m. sleeping in) & go into the Y later on and not worry about getting kids to school, etc.  Anyway, I'm rambling....

Today is John's birthday!!  I can't ignore that & blog about some race last week.  Although I will share this photo with you that was taken at the end of the Try Melon Tri with  our medals from our age group.

So I'm not a complete liar.  I'm just not going to give you a complete race recap.  Don't let the picture fool you though, John is a ball of energy & always Mr. Funny Guy (gee, I wonder where he gets that.  Anyone that knows my husband knows that answer!!).  But being his punk pre-teen (in this pic he was that) self he loves to NOT smile when I "force" him to take pictures.  Yes, ladies & gentleman I'm a picture obsessive mother who torments subjects her children to capturing their lives via millions of pictures.  I'm just waiting for that golden moment when they realize how wonderful lucky they are that I did that for them.

Anyway, rewinding 13 years ago, John was our first born son.  He was a twin, but we lost that twin.  Not a birth, but prior to that within the first trimester.  It's called a vanishing twin.  Makes no difference that I never birthed that child or got to see him, it's still John's twin.  And I'll never forget the moment when they showed me on the ultrasound the 4 perfectly formed heart chambers.....that was no longer beating.  Having twins was a life long dream of mine and it left me broken hearted, yet I don't doubt God's wisdom in the situation.

Having not grown up with a brother it was extremely important that I have a son.  After 3 wonderful daughters I was ready for a boy too.  Some days (then & now)  I question that because in some ways I struggle with and don't identify with boys.  It's such a strange concept for me, one that I certainly don't understand.  And I have nothing to base this whole raise a son concept on.  So far, I'm sure I've done a pretty good job.  Don't think I've screwed him up too much yet.  It's still been an honor & complete joy to raise a son.

I wasn't planning on this being such a rambly post.  I just knew I wanted to blog about my son.  He's pretty darn special to me & I'm honored to be his mother.  He's a bit of an athlete (gee, wonder where he got that from.  ok, I'm taking credit for that one!), but not only with running, but many sports.  He's absolutely amazing.  And a teenager.  Wait.....what?!?!?   How did I get to have 4 teenagers!?!?!  *gasp* I better save that topic for another post.