Let's Celebrate!

The Pediatrician's office called last night to let us know that Jonas's test results all came back within normal ranges. We still have to return on Tuesday for another test or two, but things are looking good. I can't tell you how relieving it is to know that your baby isn't going to suffer from some lifelong complication. I couldn't do anything but sit there and cry, phone dangling from my hand.

Funny, my response would have been the same if it had been bad news. Tears are strange. I'm never sure when they're going to well up. It's frustrating sometimes, being such an emotional person. I cried the other day just watching two little boys walk home from school. The older brother had his hand on the younger brother's head, and the little brother was crying. The older brother leaned over and kissed the little boy, hugged him and wiped the tears off his cheeks. What a touching thing! Most older brothers wouldn't be caught dead doing something like that in public.

Anyway...

We really have a lot to celebrate this week.

Yesterday my nephew, Steven, was given four awards at school. It was all a big surprise to him, and he's been beaming ever since. It's not every day that a child gets four awards, you know. It's so much fun watching him go through this phase of his life, when things like little paper certificates still seem like such a huge deal. I know that in another year or two, he'll be too "cool" to be proud of his grades.

Wednesday night he lost his second tooth. He's such a baby about his loose teeth, too. He won't wiggle them or do anything to assist in their extraction, only sit patiently and wait for them to fall out on their own. The last one took well over a month! This one made it's getaway in an ear of corn. He didn't even notice it was gone until he noticed that it was bleeding. It was pretty amusing to watch him try and find it stuck in the corn cobb, which he did, and then decided that if the toothfairy thought that tiny tooth was worth something, she'd really pay up for the corn cobb it came out of!

Tomorrow is Steven's sixth birthday. It's hard to believe how much time has gone by. I know it's such a cliche, but I feel like he was just born last week, ya know? All the moments between then and now have just sort of become hazy. Sure, I remember the milestones between there and here, but it's all so surreal.

The other night I was complimenting him on his reading skills, and I told him, "You know, pretty soon you're going to be teaching Jonas how to read and write."

He looked at me comically and replied, "Aunt Angie, by the time Jonas can read, I'll be in sixth or seventh grade!"

Oh my God, he's right! I don't know if I'm prepared for that. Maybe I will be by the time it happens. And I wonder what kind of teenager he'll be? Will he continue to be such a bright and respectful young man, or will he take after his mother and his Aunt and turn into a little hellion? I try remembering what I was like in sixt and seventh grade, and what the other kids were like. It makes me cringe. Sooner or later he's going to be exposed to the uglier side of life. Will it ruin him?

So his birthday party is this afternoon at the bowling alley. We've set up for them to have the whole "cosmic bowling" thing going on, where everything is blacklights and strobes and lazers. He's going to love it, I'm sure. My sister is in a panic because there are 35 kids coming. 35! They're going to have to shut the place down!

All I can say is thank God they sell beer!