Twelve years ago today I lay in a hospital bed. I held my newborn son in my arms. He was 11 days late, per Dragonmaker's wishes, *not* a Virgo ;-)
He was beautiful. He still is beautiful... and I was also on a whole lot of drugs right then.
My beautiful baby boy was a handful and a half. He was colicky when he was tiny, but we made it through it. I was there for him on his first day of daycare, his first day of school, when he broke his nose at five years old, when his father and I split, when he left the safety of the Free School and moved on to public school...
Twelve years is a long time, you know? There are so many amazing memories that I could never even begin to list off for people. Somehow, I think, that trying to do that might belittle him, or the memories. It's good enough that I remember them and that he remembers them.
Twelve years later...
He had his birthday party today. 8 screaming 11/12 year old boys. He's a wonderful and popular child with great friends. His friends are respectful and conscientious and friendly and everything I would want from my kid's friends. They didn't trash the house, things are still in order, no one got hurt, it was perfect, really. I couldn't ask for more.
This is the boy over the summer. He looks a lot like me, even though he's the spitting image of his father, most of the time.
I can't believe it's been 12 years already. He's growing up so fast. The only thing that I can really say is how proud I am of who he is becoming and how proud I am of both myself and the Dragonmaker for helping him to turn out the way he has.
We took a shot together after the party (Dragonmaker and I, *not* the Spawn). It was like a toast. We're doing good, we're 2/3 of the way there with him. And I have high hopes for who he's going to become over the next 6 years and beyond.
~FG };^>
