A Dozen Years With Luke

Our boy Luke turned twelve today.  Wanna see a cute baby picture of that guy?  I figured.

That was him on his first birthday.  This was him this morning:

Definitely the same kid.  Right?  Let me brag a bit on this boy because it's his birthday, I'm his mom, and this is my blog.  ;-)

Luke is a delight to us.  He is so intelligent and knowledgable while also being personable and fun-loving.  He unloads the dishwasher without complaint and gives his mom hugs without being asked.  He plays piano with a level of sensitivity and precision that awes his parents as well as his piano teacher.  He is soft-hearted toward people younger than him.  Multiple moms of toddlers have commented about how much they love the way Luke interacts with their kids.  I love it, too.  When he does funny things  (i.e. repeatedly rolling off the couch in slow motion) to entertain a visiting two-year old, I can see the man he is becoming, and he reminds me of his father.   A very good thing, people.

A quick word about the nearly teenage-ness of my son.  I am not afraid.  I am excited.  (Maybe a little nervous, too, but mostly excited.)  I believe the concept of teenager is a social construct.  I know Luke is moving toward adulthood, but that does not mean he has to rebel or be surly.  It means he has to intentionally seek out his place in this crazy world, try things on, suffer failure, and go back to the drawing board.  We will love, support, continue to train, and guide him while he does this.  We will also be intentional about finding ways to help Luke gain independence.  Yes, this process hurts a little, but it doesn't have to be miserable.  In fact, I think it is going to be epic.

End sermon.

Wanna see the rest of the pictures from the day's celebrations?  Sure you do.

 Getting the third in the Harry Potter series from us this morning.  He was pretty excited.

 But he also likes toys.  And we like that about him.  He's still a kid!  This is a new light saber set that he had been eyeing recently.  I love that we found it on clearance.  The Lord is so good.


The next picture was taken at breakfast where Grandma and Grandpa gave Luke a new watch, a nice watch, a fancy watch, a watch that he can program to help him remember things like taking ADD meds and accomplishing other important tasks.  He was pretty jazzed.  So were we.

Luke had requested Chick-Fil-A for lunch on his birthday.  We invited some friends along to make it even more fun.  They are almost all looking at the camera in this picture.  We tried.

The birthday party was a standard Bangsund affair, with a Star Wars theme and a movie shown.  Here is the cake.  It's a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.  It was super yummy.

 I couldn't find twelve candles that were all the same.  The individual plugging his ears is doing so because our rendition of "Happy Birthday" was loud enough to be heard in the street.  For real.  Loud and proud, people.  That's us.


Then it was time for the movie!  "The Return of the Jedi" is a good one.  And the crowd enjoyed it.  Eleven kids, two dads and one grandma watched while three moms drank sparkling water in the living room upstairs.  Lovely.