Welcome to the Teenage Years

Ryan is officially a teenager today!  It's hard to believe that it has been thirteen years since this sweet boy was born almost three weeks early weighing in at 5 lbs 14 ounces...one tiny little boy.

He's turning into a very nice young man.  With the entry into the teenage world, we are entering new territory:

• Having family and friends call the house and wonder who the deep voiced boy is on the other end.
• Having teenage social hour in our backyard or driveway on a regular basis.  I love that the boys want to hang out at our house.
• Requests for Stridex to prevent the acne starting on his face (after he wondered if a fairly big zit was a zit or a cut :)!) Sorry honey...it was a zit.
• Lots of showers...with less and less reminders that he needs to take a shower (and some occasional hair gel after a shower!)
• Conversations about responsibility and making good choices in friends and actions.
• Begging for a cell phone (he's not getting one just yet...and when he does it will probably not have the capability to text...yes we are the "mean parents").
• Request for weights to start officially "working out".

And some things fortunately aren't changing:

• We start and end each day with an "I love you" and sometimes have a few in between.
• He understands life and the importance of faith.  It is a joy to get notes from his religious education teacher each year praising him for his participation and perspective.
• He loves baseball and everything about baseball...asking every day to pitch or catch with his dad.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!