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I’m guessing if one is a blogger and one has children that one might just blog about their child on their birthday. I have three children. I have two spring babies and just one fall baby and technically I know he is really a summer baby but in my mind the moment it turns September, it’s fall. Right here in Southern California September is up there as one of our hotter months of the year, but let me think what I will think, to me the entire month is fall. He is my fall baby. I have three, I have two A’s and one D. He is the one D. I have three, two righties and one lefty. He is my lefty. I have three, two free spirits and one of great discipline. He, this D, this lefty, this fall baby….he is my one of great discipline. I joke lots saying “I want to be like Dylan when I grow up.” It’s hard not to say because he has all the qualities I do not. I have never had to make him do his homework. He just does. He does what he knows he needs to do, he does what he knows is required. When he was little he shared a room with his big brother. He was the one who desperately wanted his own space. Why? To keep it clean. A few weeks ago he asked if I might get him some cleaning stuff for his face. I did. He tells me yesterday, “I have not missed a day mom, I wash my face twice a day since you got me the stuff” Me, I often forget to take off my make up at night. Are you getting the picture? But this doesn’t mean he is not fun. He is full of fun. He pranks me nearly every day. He video tapes me without me knowing and performs silly off the wall crazy stunts while he is secretly videotaping me to see what reaction I will give. He LOVES a reaction. I would say our most common ground is that we are both dreadfully shy yet completely insane with our behind closed-door behaviors. And the other really, really big thing we share in common. We share the same faith. This common ground creates a bond that cannot be broken. These two very big things help us to get each other even though we are nearly nothing alike.

He began high school yesterday. The class he is the most excited about? Finance. He can’t wait to get into the meat of that class. In fact he already let me know as soon as he gets a job he will save 10% of his earning in a savings each week. He said if he really manages his money just right he can be a millionaire. And if anyone can, it will be him. I believe it’s no mistake he was named after his uncle another well-disciplined, fun-loving, lefty, man of faith who also just happens to know a lot about finances.

He shows me how to do hard things. I learn from this kid. I learn from him. He is a gift to me. It has been an honor to be his mother. A complete honor. Happy Birthday D-man.

Oh yeah and he is athletic. and these days you might find him doing hand stands simply because he can.

or yoga type poses without even realizing it

The birthday part of today is good. He had his birthday breakfast. We are going to his favorite Chinese restaurant tonight and he got that robe he has been wanting (shhhhh, he hasn’t opened his gifts yet) But on a far stranger and sad note. Austin was in his first car accident today. This is how the phone call was received. “Mom?” “Yes Austin” “It happened” “You were in a car accident?” “Yep” And that was that. He is okay, his two friends who were in the car with him are okay and this is good considering he was sitting at a stand still and was hit by a woman going at least 45 miles per hour. He was ready to make a left hand turn, had a panic situation when he realize he started to turn left on a green rather than wait for all the cars to clear, the bug stalled and he basically just braced himself for the hit. He has been a wreck himself the rest of today and is the type of kid who is very hard on himself. I mean Rich and I knew this would happen, it just happens right? At least that’s what I’ve been told. I totalled out my first car when I was about his age. I knew when I took pictures of the pretty new/old bug there would someday be a different story. His world has been rocked, the car shouldn’t be driven at this point. Rich got the bug home but at 30 miles per hour and with lots of crazy noises. The kid is wondering how he will get to work now, how he will see his girlfriend, he is devastated that he has “cost” us even more money you know all those normal thoughts. I hate when things like this happen to people I love. I told him it’s okay, everyone is alive, a lesson will be learned and it will give you problem solving skills, what to do next? Stay tuned. Life, it’s still very, very good. Just one of those things. unfortunately since it happened on Dylan’s birthday we will not be able to forget the date of his first accident. And you see we are a family of celebrations. So we do not celebrate the fact that he crashed his first car, but we celebrate in the fact that he had the wits about him to jump out immediately to see if the person who hit him was alright, that he knew exactly where his insurance card was and that he in his own hand writing got her name, address, phone number, license plate, make model, and drivers license number which happened to be expired and out-of-state but still it was his fault for being the one in turning left. He even sounded calm on our phone call. He kept it together when it mattered the most. The woman even complimented us on our son, She told Rich “you have a good boy here” So this is what we celebrate. The lesson learned.

In the glory days

Her she sits today. even the passenger door got buckled from the impact but I have to say these awesome German-made cars are like mini tanks, could have been far worse and his buddy Kris the one who was sitting up front there, could have had it much worse.