My First Baby Turns 13

Thirteen years and I still can't believe that this giant boy in my house is the baby I swear was just here yesterday. Bittersweet is a word I seem to be using a lot lately in parenting because it's so very fitting. This is the price of parenthood. They grow up - and away - from us. The consolation is that if we do our jobs right, maybe we've raised some pretty decent humans along the way. I think (hope?) we're doing that, or at least giving it our best. Teenagers are hard, y'all! But I know it comes with the territory. The challenges are certainly a lot different now (smart phones, social media) than they were when Dan and I were teens, but some remain the same (like the sarcasm, and boundary testing).

Evan is a ridiculously smart young man (oy, it feels weird to type that). There's a verse from a children's book that often plays in my head when I think of Evan...."fixer of all things fixable." And he truly is. He is a solutions guy. He's also a straight A student and I learned quickly that a little spending money is a powerful motivator for him to keep up the academic work.

He loves tennis. Loves it. I wish I'd gotten him into lessons sooner but he's done well enough in the past year to have made the school team this fall.



Evan is a good friend. He *still* has the same best friend he's had since he was a baby, despite not living down the street from each other anymore. I love that he makes an effort in maintaining real friendships.





He's still playing trumpet and doing great with it. He even had a solo jazz riff in the spring concert.







He loves video games, although lately I have seen that interest fade just a bit. At 13, we've also reached an age where (some of) the stuff he likes to watch on TV/streaming sometimes overlaps with what Dan and I watch. Gone are our days of lounging on the couch on weekends after the kids are in bed because Evan wants to stay up late too! He laughs at me for not liking the scary genre though.

He is almost taller than me. It'll happen this year I think.



But he'll still cuddle with me sometimes. Thank goodness, cause my mama heart isn't ready to let go just yet.



I love this kid/teen/dude, even on the days he drives me crazy and tests those boundaries to their limit. But if he'd slow down just a little, that would be all right too.