Today is my son’s 10th birthday. And it’s really hard to believe.
Yesterday was his last day in single digits. He told me that no fewer than 283 times over the past week.
Today, he moves into double digits.
And as my son told me yesterday, “Ten years . . . where did the time go?”
What better way to celebrate your birthday than with pizza!
I’m really not sure. It seems like just yesterday that we were driving to the hospital in the middle of the night. And then he was there sometime between 5 and 5:30 that morning. My son said he thought it was 5:16, but I think his memory might be a little clouded.
As I’ve written before, his first year was a traumatic one. We found out just a couple of months later that my wife had cancer. And, there’s just no pretty way to say this, my son was the worst baby I’ve ever been around.
After my wife passed away, I wasn’t sure I could raise him (and/or my daughter) on my own. But somehow I survived him. And, probably more amazing, somehow he survived me.
At some point before he turned four, he settled down. And he has since become the obsessive-compulsive 10-year-old-going-on-35-year-old child he is today.
When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted to spend time with his family.
Uh? What’s wrong with today’s generation?
So he and I (my daughter was busy studying for class) went out and had pizza and then took in a movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.
And we also took in some air hockey at the game room at the theater. I could tell he was getting older because he pummeled me in the first game, 7-2. And sadly, I wasn’t trying to let him win. In fact, I was trying real hard to win – even though I didn’t tell him that.
My son won our first game, but after tying his shoe laces together and threatening to take away his allowance, I was able to pull out the final two games.
It’s been amazing watching him grow into the young man he is today. The young man who wants to start an anti-litter campaign in our community. The young man who can’t quite make up his mind if he wants to be a scientist, an inventor, a doctor, a real estate developer, or a trash man.
A young man who still, on occasion, likes to sit in my lap as we watch a movie together.
I never dreamed we would have such a close relationship. I never dreamed it would go by so fast. It’s been great to watch him grow over the past 10 years. I can hardly wait to see what the next 10 years will bring.
Holding together the jello 