#505 a teenager in my house

It had to happen, and today is the day. My baby is officially a teenager!

I think that he has celebrated this day pretty much how he wanted. I've basically left him on his own to play games and surf the internet. We did take him to lunch to a place he chose (Kneaders) and to dinner to a place he sort of chose (Rodizio Grill). I say sort of because he said he wanted to go to a Brazilian steak house and I suggested Rodizio because I think it's good. T liked it except there was no ham and he really likes the ham. Oh well.

We were happy that T's Idaho grandparents could join us for the celebration.

My favorite part of the evening was when the wait staff came out with a tambor and sang Happy Birthday in Portugese. I love Brazilian rhythms, so I happily clapped along and took a picture. I meant to get the face of the guy hitting the drum - he was cute - but as you can see, I cut off his head so I could get my son's face as he looked at the flan they brought him.

I was really proud that T bravely took a bite of the flan, and even swallowed it even though he didn't like it. Everyone else at the table liked it a lot (well, not me because I'm not a big fan of custard.) Then when our server asked him if he liked it, he told her that he did and thanked her for bringing it. Good job!

Did I mention we had a meat festival? I think I ate just about everything they brought except the chicken heart. It was a protein feast. Delicious. I did have a tiny salad to balance it out and very few carbs. My caipirinha was excellent also.

After dinner we wandered through Barnes & Noble, of course. I always find lots of books I'd like to read, but I didn't buy anything this time.

When we got home, it was time to sing and blow out candles. I don't know if he does it on purpose - he probably does to keep the family joke alive - but T can NOT blow out candles. He only had two on the cake, a 1 and a 3, but he only succeeded in blowing out the 1. Then he got to giggling and couldn't quite get that second one blown out. While we were singing, we had the California grandparents and aunt on speaker phone so we could all sing together. It would have been great to have them all here, but we did what we could. Maybe next year we'll Skype, whatever that is.

So happy birthday T! I'm proud of the person you're becoming. Keep doing the right things, study hard, and have fun. I love you boy.