happy birthday sean!

It's official!

I've now been a parent for a decade.

This seems weird to me, since I have several friends who are only just now having their first sons or daughters--not that I consider myself an old pro or anything, but you know. . . I've seen a lot.

In the past 10 years, I've actually had to use phrases like:

Stop licking the television.

Get your toes off the table.

and

No, we are not having chips for breakfast.

Because of being a parent and a daycare provider since Ethan was born, I have been changing diapers for literally 10 years. At one point, I had 5 in diapers including my own and daycare kids. That adds up to a minimum of a dozen diaper changes a day, quite often many times more.

I've experienced road trips and earaches, explosive diarrhea and sunburns, made almost 2 dozen birthday cakes, mopped my floor ninety-million times, become a professional fan of kids' soccer, T-ball, baseball & basketball, made fourteen-thousand peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, stepped on hundreds of legos, wiped off thousands of fingerprints, and counted to 3 what seems like millions of times.

But I've also had the great fun of having kids who fight to see who can hug me the longest when saying goodnight (anything to postpone bedtime), sweet little hand-drawn pictures taped to my refrigerator and front door, and 'surprise mommy, we made you breakfast!' disasters. I've had 10 years of kisses and I-love-yous, outgrown clothes and shoes, and obsolete-as-soon-as-you-buy-them gaming systems.

It all started with this one.

Meet Sean.


(He shared a mini birthday party with his cousin Jack who turns 2 next week.)

Sean is 10 today.

He started out as my first little experiment when I had no clue what I was doing. He was an emergency C-section because the stinker weight 9 lbs, 7 oz and just had nowhere to go. He slept thru the night at 5 weeks, was walking by 10 months, and was a total pacifier kid until he was 2 years old.

As a little guy he was a complete charmer. He loved dirt, his cousins, and preschool. He got put in Time-Out his first day of kindergarten, but really, has had excellent behavior since. He had his Articles of Faith memorized by age 6 and had lost his first tooth at age 7. By 8 he had discovered Pokemon and Harry Potter and at age 9 he decided that sports weren't his thing.

He and I are way too much alike. Because of that, we butt heads a lot.

He shares my love of Twilight, broadway musicals, photography, cooking, and music. He shares his Dad's love of PS2 Basketball, swimming, sleeping in, roller coasters, and the internet. (ok that's from me too) He is a super help to me with the daycare kiddos and loves holding babies. He's going to be a fantastic babysitter in the next couple of years. He gets very anxious about new things and has major fear of the unknown and change--in fact, he may end up in therapy over these things some day--but for now, we just try to roll with it and hope he'll grow out of it. He's still best friends with the same kid that he met the first day of kindergarten, and he's smart. So so smart.

And it doesn't phase me one bit that I'm old enough to have a child a decade old.

Nope, not one bit.

It just means that by now, I should pretty much have this parenting thing in the bag, right? Nothing should shock me, stun me, perplex me, or challenge me now?

Yeah, I'm laughing too.

The challenges don't go away, they just change, right?

He's made it pretty easy for me so far. :)

Thanks Sean, we love you, and happy birthday!