A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings: You Say It's Your Birthday

I cannot believe it. Even though I have been there for nearly every one of his 4745+ days on earth I still can't believe that Isaac is 13 years old. In part because I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 13 year old child; but even more because it seems to have gone by so fast. Most seems like a blur. I feel
like I can only remember a very small percentage of it, and frankly some of that is not worth remembering.

Isaac spent the majority of the few months of his life being fussy. Fussy sounds much nicer than it actually was. He cried, screamed, and shook his fists in the air. We would walk him back and forth down the hall of our apartment - back-and-forth, back-and-forth. We would drive him around until he fell asleep in his car seat (did you know you aren't supposed to let babies sleep in their car seats anymore, glad we didn't know that then). We would never take him out after 6pm because that is when things got really bad. In addition to being difficult when he was awake he was also opposed to sleep. Some nights I wouldn't even bother going to bed. I'd just lay on the couch with him in his cradle. It didn't seem worth the effort to get into bed when the amount of sleep I'd be getting was so insignificant. I often had the thought that it was entirely possible that this would never end. People tell you it is a phase, he'll grow out of it. What do they know? I knew it there was no reason to believe that he wouldn't cry for the rest of his life and I would never sleep again.

I haven't slept much since (after the first few years it wasn't really Isaac's fault anymore), but he has stopped crying and grown into a remarkably funny and talented young man. He is a whiz on the piano. He plays by ear and memorizes everything. He loves to ski and would be perfectly happy if winter lasted most of the year (I have no understanding of that whatsoever). He is smart. He has done a fantastic job catching up in 7th grade after being home schooled for 3 months. He has a great sense of humor. Honestly, he comes from parents who both have great senses of humor (one better than the other) so it's not really a surprise. Through his interactions with study abroad students (see some of their great advice below) he has seen what can come if you survive the early teen years.

I expect we will have plenty of teen angst and our share of trouble in the years ahead, but for now I couldn't be more pleased with Isaac and the young man he has become.