The tiny baby who came home to two mostly-clueless parents and two pups who thought they were human, the baby who inspired the move of Erin's Official Internet Sharings from, like, long emails and LiveJournals and MySpace to HERE IN YE LITTLE CORNER OF THE WEBZ which has already somehow aged itself out of usefulness in keeping up with the times but I can't quite quit it anyway -- yeah, THAT little newborn baby is now eleven.
Eleven!
Happy birthday, baby Nathan!
He started middle school this week (magnet school with a modified schedule starts early and ends early each year). He's still doing orchestra, and loving science and design things, is doing a geometric construction class (?) (something about math and buildings) and also digital literacy (because 2018) and Chinese and all sorts of big-kid things.
He has reached the age of into-every-sport, thinks he is destined to be a great football star (he has never played football, never, not once, but he will be trying it this fall) (the flag variety, I'm not nuts y'all, PLEZ), is actually a really fast swimmer, likes running, and wears out athletic shoes faster than he outgrows them (he's still the smallest kid in his grade) (best of luck with those football dreams, buddy). He has fallen hard for the Croatian national soccer team, the Twins (?) and the Vikings (???) - but is most enthused about Clemson football, because, yknow, Dad time.
He tells jokes that actually (sometimes) have a real punchlines that are (somewhat) funny. He is too old for Daniel Tiger but not too old for Cars and Toy Story. He isn't yet too cool for snuggling. THANK THE LORD AMIRITE?! He loves his little sisters and his little cousins and is compliant and responsible and polite, and only shows signs of teen 'tude when he's overstimulated or beyond his introvert limits (but is better than many adults at recognizing that and escaping for a bit to recharge).
He is bossy but we have no idea where he gets that. *shrug* *cringe*
His YouTube history is still full of dinosaur documentaries and info about maritime history, now with a smattering of Two Cellos, The Piano Guys, Imagine Dragons, Minecraft how-tos, sportsball highlights, kid chef/cooking shows, drawing tutorials, and Try Not to Laugh videos. (Spoiler alert: he usually laughs. Often at o' dark thirty in the morning when I am trying to sleep late.) (Someone wake me when my mom of the year trophy arrives.)
We got him a cell phone earlier this summer, for the advent of middle school (he'll eventually be taking a city bus home, and I need to text him and also track his every location and move like any millenial parent, duh) and as we were setting up our family cell phone rules, and talking about not disparaging other people or excluding them or saying unkind or untrue things about them, etc - he said "so basically, be a a Hufflepuff?" YES, BUDDY. YES. BE A HUFFLEPUFF.
And he is. Through and through. He seeks to include, he clamors for what's fair (to the point where his exacting nature is sometimes exhausting for me), he is empathetic and kind and funny, and just a truly wonderful little human.
I felt a LOT of feelings this past Sunday, his due date, the night before he started middle school. I cried all my tears and missed his infant self and I think I have that out of my system for the moment, because right now all I can think about is how great he is, how glad I am I know him, and how amazed and grateful I am that we get to be his parents.
Happy birthday, dear Nathan. We love you so much. xoxo
(Click here to watch the embedded video above on YouTube.)
Memory lane:
Nathan's 10th year
9th year
8th year
7th year
6th year
5th year
4th year
3rd year
2nd year
1st year (omg *sob emoji*)