My oldest boy turned 16 recently. I’ve been through this with my daughter as well. It’s a scary time. They are approaching adulthood and learning to drive. Both terrifying things for a parent. Brother wanted to keep things low key for his birthday this year. He didn’t want a party, he’s not in a hurry to get his license and he didn’t even have anything specific that he asked for his birthday this year. He wanted to go out to eat with his family and one of his best friends then go to an arcade/indoor theme park. So that’s what we did.
This birthday seemed different to me. He has always been the kid who gets REALLY excited about Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day, birthdays, etc. Every Christmas, after opening every single present, he would exclaim “This is the best Christmas ever!” Even if what he just opened was a package of new socks. He’s always been so full of energy and joy. Every birthday he would get up early and come wake me up and say, “It’s my birthday!” and then blush when I sang Happy Birthday to him. We would then proceed right to opening his birthday present.
This year, it was 10am and I hadn’t heard from him or seen him yet. I went to his room and knocked on his door and I hear a “yeah?”. I opened the door and say “hey happy birthday! You wanna come upstairs and open your present?” To my surprise he says “maybe later. I got up early and watched YouTube so I’m gonna go back to sleep for a while”. I convinced him to come open his present first. He got a new phone he’s been wanting, and he very calmly smiled and said thank you.
This is 16. The days of my little boy getting super excited about everything are in the past. I didn’t put pressure on him to show more excitement because I remember what it was like as a teenager. He’s growing and changing in so many ways and instead of trying to talk him into being the boy he once was, I have to embrace the man he is turning into. It’s a new chapter in his life. I love him through all of his chapters. Doesn’t mean I won’t always miss the little excited boy he once was. This is just him right now and I respect that and love him just as much. I also know he will continue to change as he gets older, and I know I will love him just as much through those chapters as well.
At the arcade, me and Daddy Minks took Stinky Minks to the little kid play area and let the big kids go have their fun. Later in the day we went to meet up with them and when he saw me, he excitedly told me what they had been doing and I briefly saw my little boy again. He does show me a glimpse of that boy every now and then and it makes my heart swell seeing him again.
Stinky’s POV on Brother’s Birthday
Mama put a cute outfit on me which means I was wearing jeans. I don’t like jeans. It’s harder for me to move around in them. Anyway, while I’m crawling around waiting for everyone else to get ready to go out to eat, my jeans caused me to slip and fall on my face. Great way to start the day!
We get to the restaurant and mama discovers that I must’ve peed out of the side of my diaper because the front of my jeans are soaked. Was it an accident or was it my plan all along to get out of these jeans? I’ll never tell.
Mama takes me out to the car to look for a change of pants for me and realizes that she doesn’t have one. I didn’t care. I got to go back inside and eat lunch in my diaper and t-shirt. We stop at Walmart so Mama can buy me a pair of pants for the arcade. They put all of their pants away already and got out summer clothes so all they had was shorts. Mama was able to find one pair of pants but they were 2 sizes too big. We made them work (this means Mama and Daddy pulling my pants up all day long).
We get to the arcade, and they take me to the little kid play area. Mama sits me on this rocker thing, and I proceed to rock forward falling face first AGAIN into the floor. I felt better after a few minutes of screaming. Things were fun for a while, and I even made a new friend. I was trying to play with that new friend when some wild girl comes up behind me and tackles me causing me to hit my forehead AGAIN and then she begins to pull my hair. She is very excited. She seems to think we are playing but I don’t like this game. Her dad and my Mama were quick to get to us. I screamed for a few more minutes then went back to playing.
The day ended with birthday cake where I got to cover my face in red icing and get a nice sugar buzz. So all in all, it was a good day. Happy Birthday Brother Minks!
