Fourteen!

Yesterday this guy turned 14! Being a teenager is hard enough. Having a birthday during a world wide pandemic isn’t very fun. Yesterday was supposed to be a teacher workday so he would’ve been spending the day at Busch Gardens with some friends. He was pretty bummed about that. But he said overall it was a fun day. Just didn’t feel like a birthday. 

I had asked him earlier if he wanted a drive by birthday parade or get the neighbors over for ice cream and cake in the driveway but he said he didn’t want all the attention and just wanted to be with family.

 The night before he wanted to stay awake until midnight to see his birthday begin. He played Xbox while FaceTiming friends. I tried to tell him his official birthday didn’t start until 7:17am (I think that time is correct...3 kids in and it’s all so fuzzy but it was shortly after 7:15) so I was expecting him to sleep in.

I set my alarm - 8 weeks into this pandemic and we are completely off schedule - but I woke up early to drive to Krispy Kreme to surprise Colin with donuts for breakfast. I didn’t get to surprise him because he woke up at 8.  He told me he was just so excited he couldn’t sleep. It was cold and raining all day so we couldn’t even leave the house to go to a park but he opened presents, FaceTimed Mama-maa and Grandpa, had a visit from his favorite teacher who stopped by, and a neighbor texted him to go look in the mailbox and Colin went out and there was a note from Matthew taped to some candy.

 Colin loved going to an escape room last year so I ordered a kit for us to do one at home. It wasn’t the same but was something fun and different to do on a rainy day.

He requested an icecream cake like last year and when we were singing happy birthday Joel said “happy birthday to norah instead of Colin” haha 

I know everyone thinks their kids are special but there is really something extra special about this kid. I keep waiting for a difficult stage with him but so far he has been a dream to parent. He is kind, patient, respectful, thinks of others, loves his brother and sister and rarely gets annoyed by them, has THE BEST sense of humor, loves Jesus,  so easy going, and the list could go on and on. I keep joking that I’m going to hold him back next year so he doesn’t have to go to high school yet. Everyone says the high school years fly by. The best part of this whole quarantine is extra time with the kids. I feel like I’m getting extra time with them. 

We went around the table at dinner saying what we liked about Colin and one of Joel’s was “Colin makes me feel like I can do anything” and I think that’s a really great way to describe Colin.

Happy birthday Colin! I hope even if it didn’t feel like a birthday you felt loved by all of us! What a gift you are to our family!