Andrew Turns Twelve

Andrew couldn't wait for his birthday to become his birth-night...that's when the real fun happens.  Dad gets home from work, allowing presents to be opened, dinner to be eaten, dessert to be enjoyed.  The most important of these being the presents, of course.  The first thing he opened was a quilt I'd just finished making for him that morning.  Last minute projects are not an unusual thing for me, but unlike some last minute projects, this one went surprisingly smoothly and I'm not real sure why. It was fabulous.
Andrew tends towards sentimentality in some ways.  I've always found this to be an endearing quality of his, so I had made a point to save some of his shirts and other clothing so he could look back at them some point in the future.  I decided that the best way to hold onto some of these things that would never be used again was to turn them into something that would be used: a quilt.  T-shirt fabric is much too stretchy to be an enjoyable fabric to sew, but it all went together quickly and easily.

Andrew was really pleased with it.  He had no idea that it was coming, and I think he's slept with it every night since.  The best part is that all the T-shirts are already broken in--what a comfy quilt!



Audrey created an audience (of horses, of course) to watch Andrew open his gifts.  Andrew received books: Artemis Fowl #6 (which he'd completed by the next morning) and some classics (Call of the Wild, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, Wind in the Willows) since he's recently read The Lord of the Rings series, The Hobbit, and Robinson Crusoe (have I mentioned that he amazes me?)  He also received some video games and Pokemon cards.



After presents, we took him out to Ruby's (his choice of dinner, super yummy chicken strips) where he ended up with another audience, although this one wasn't comprised of horses.  In this case, it was his Nintendo DSi XL that was being ooohh'd and aaahhh'd over.



When dinner was over, we swung by Krispy Kreme Dougnuts to get the makings of a birthday cake.  Andrew designed his Holey Tower, and Chris inserted the candles.





We had an extremely lively rendition of "Happy Birthday" sung, and then Andrew made his wish.  One year from now, I'll have two teenage boys in my house!  (If I keep repeating that, it is simply in hope that I will come to believe it.  Who was it that said "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it."  William James?  I'm hoping he's right.)  I really don't understand how it takes them 10 years to get to their 5th birthday and then the next 8 years pass overnight.  I guess I'll be working at savoring this year with my 12 year old.  Happy Birthday, son.