20 years ago today......

We became parents.

We were young and on cloud nine.....

Twenty years ago today our Nicholas Marc was born. He was a whopping 7lbs. 8oz., when I say whopping I mean he was my biggest baby, all the others just got littler and were more complicated births. I am definitely NOT a good baby oven...

It's amazing how fast time goes by. It's unbelievable to me that our oldest is 20...he is now older than I was when I got pregnant with him....almost a year. It is astounding to me.

For years he has frustrated me and irritated me and worried me. He was the boy who loved trains. He was the boy who, when his sister was first born, asked "Can I even hold her?" We said "Yes, you can hold her..." He retorted with "Why?". He was the boy who loved to shoot his BB-Gun, write stories about his gun, about his hunting and drew pictures to go along with those stories...even when he got in trouble at school for doing it, which irritated the heck out of us.... It was his passion and we were proud, as was he. He was that teenager who loved that mini-bike of his, and would ride it for hours and hours, he would come in coated with dust and his hair wind blown into the best Bee-Gee's feathered look you ever saw. He was that teenager who disliked school, wanted nothing to really do with anything that didn't appeal to him...he excelled in the classes that he was fond of and had social hour in the classes that were anything but interesting to him.

He is now a man, not a teenager, not a boy, not a baby....a man.

Less than 24 hours old.... Notice the wipes? ;)

A man that sent us a text last night telling us he loved us and thanking us for his birthday party.
A man that does have a job, but would love to call in more often than not.
A man that would STILL eat us out of house and home if I let him.
A man that got his car taken away from him due to unforseen circumstances and took it like a man, even though she was his baby.
A man who isn't afraid to tell people that mean the most to him that he loves them and willingly gives out hugs along with it.
A man who still keeps his room a disaster.
Who leaves towels piling up in the bathroom, no matter how many times I tell him about it.
A man who will continue to be guided in this world of the unknown.
A man who does make wrong choices, but is never afraid to admit them.
A man who has never lied to his parents.
A man that still has the world ahead of him.....with all the choices it has to offer.

We are proud of him. Proud of the choices he has made, good or bad. For that shows that lessons were taught, learned and ingrained in his brain.

He is and will always be our baby, our boy, our teenager, who now is considered a man to the world.

He was our first of many lessons to learn...as he is the first to learn those same lessons.

Happy Birthday to our first born. The day I found out I was pregnant was his dad's, and I quote...."proudest day of my life" and the day he was born....

I think he looks just as proud, maybe more....

We still are...we may not show it as much, but PROUD we are!