Happy 13th Birthday, Liam!

Dear Son,

Thursday you turned the big 1-3!  I drove down to where your dad lives to surprise you with gifts, balloons, and a breakfast of powdered donuts at 7am.  Things have been rough between us the past few months, so when you came bounding down the stairs and the smile of surprise showed up on your face, I beamed.  You hugged me so tight and grinned so cute when I informed you about your nutritious meal I had for you.  You opened your gifts and gave me more hugs.  I then left to face a commute and another work day.

3pm rolled around and you wouldn't believe it... but you called me!  You called me using your phone that you only use on your friends lately and told me you had a really fun day!  I was so happy to hear your happy voice and hear about your day full of friends making you feel special throughout the school day.  You've become so popular with the whole middle school in only a couple months!  That big smart brain and super quick wit has gotten you in a lot of trouble this school year, but golly has it bought you a lot of fans.  It's something to behold.

Dad sent me a photo of the gift we all pitched in to buy you.  A dirt bike - your own motorcycle essentially and you were so amazed!  The photo shows the pride in your eyes that you get to fix that bike up with your dad and have that time with him.  Plus just plain delight that you get to drive a machine like that at your age!  So awesome for you!  You guys are going to have so much fun!  You are one lucky kid to have a dad that does really manly cool things with you like this, boating, golfing, camping, and all the tough chores and fixing upping around the house.  It's fortunate he involves you so much and loves you so much more!

My mom called me to say she got to talk to you on your birthday too and she loved every second of the conversation.  Thanks for loving her and letting her chat a bit even though that's not your thing.

Last night we did our own celebrating together!  I picked you and your friends up to go out to the Tepanyaki Grill to watch our food catch fire in front of us.  Your girlfriend, Sam, screamed when the fire would go and you were so amused at her reactions throughout the night.  After dinner, we went to Provo Beach to play on the Flow Rider.  Your new buddy, Travis, was cute as he watched you enjoy your evening on the water.  You taught both him and Sam how to get on and surf, but they let you take over most of the time because they saw you are a natural and loved watching you balance and play. You all were cute together.  I loved when Sam would lose her balance and you guys just ran to her to help in any way you could and ensure she wasn't hurt.  Such gentlemen.

On the way back, the back seat laughs were darling.  I am so glad you have good friends that really care about you and you care about them in return.  You all are so grown up!

Today we have just been hanging out, you and me.  I love watching our shows on TV and laughing our heads off together.  We rewind things a lot so we can laugh again!  We did our daily trampoline jumping tonight and laughed a lot then too.  You make life funny and interesting and never ever dull.  I am glad you are here.  I miss you when you are gone.  I love you with all I have, kid.  It's been a rough year, but I think the next year will be a more bonding one for us.  We still have a ton more to learn... about everything... but more importantly about communicating together.

Thanks for being you.

All my love,
Mom