Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life.  In our whole family’s life.  We now have a TEENAGER in the house.  That’s right.  My baby boy, my little man, my first born son is now 13.  (Hold me.  I’m scared!)

Brandon is the baby who broke me in.  He is the one who taught me that my gut instincts are the best guide there are in motherhood.  He showed me that it is okay to make mistakes in parenting and everyone will still turn out relatively normal.  It was through living through those first hard, colicky three months that I learned I don’t need as much sleep as I thought.  I learned I can drive around the neighborhood for hours with a screaming baby and manage to tune it out enough to not cry with him.  I learned that placing a baby on a folded up blanket on a dryer with your hand on him for stability can actually soothe a screaming infant.  He showed me that it is just as good to sing Top 40 songs when rocking him to sleep as it is lullabies. 

He has received the rougher end of my motherhood.  The inexperience.  The “testing of the waters”, so to speak.  He had everything new, including rules, toys and a novice mom who was just as clueless at this relationship as he was.  He had bottles that were probably too hot now and then.  He got rushed to the doctor when it was just a cold.  He also taught me that Mom Saliva can disinfect anything if that is all you have to use when they drop their pacifiers on the ground.  He taught me how to be a mother.

And now, I assume, he will teach me how to be a mother to a teenager.  (Hold me!  I’m scared!)

Happy Birthday, Brandon.  It’s been a fun ride so far.  I cannot wait for the rest of it!

Here we are on his 3rd birthday.  My how things have changed!  (Truth be told, sometimes, this is still the boy I see when I look at him.  I probably always will.)

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