Happy 13th Birthday, Matthew!

It is official! This tiny baby...

is now this big TEENAGER!

How the past 13 years have flown by! It surely does not seem like it could have been that long ago that I was holding my little dark-haired, tiny baby for the very first time. Now I am "Mom" to a teenager?! Holy moly!

We have been talking to Matthew about his birthday for a few days now, and all you have to do is mention birthday, and he starts to sign and say, "open"....as in "give me presents, NOW!" :) First thing this morning, as I always do on the boys' birthdays, I started singing "Happy Birthday". That was all it took...he has asked to "open" all day. He wore his very mature-looking birthday shirt this morning, and took in some little cupcakes to share with his class at snack time. He got a bag of goodies from his teachers, and, Mr. Hoppy, one of Matthew's "friends", gave him a birthday card! How special is that?! There was no need to entice Matthew out of school today...once Ms. Barbara told him I was at the door, he met me in a flash....you guessed it; signing and saying "open"! We all got ready and took Matthew out for his special birthday dinner...do I even need to tell you where? For those that may not pay attention, we went to Cracker Barrel! :)

Momma and Daddy with the big birthday boy!

Matthew ate up all of his mac & cheese and fried apples, and immediately signed and said "ball". He loves those squishy type toys and knows that the Cracker Barrel Store has them...and, he got one. :) We came back home and had a few minutes to spare before prayer meeting time, so we gave Matthew a little gift from us. Here he is after very quickly snatching the bag right out of my hand!

His wrestling magazine was a huge hit, and I know he will love the bouncing ball with flashing lights, and the orange slices he got too. You can tell he takes his magazines very seriously...

I think Matthew has had a pretty great birthday. He has smiled, winked and laughed so much today. I wouldn't trade nothing for the HUGE hug and kiss he planted on me when I picked him up from school today...but the laugh that went along with it was music to my ears! I certainly do love my precious baby boy....hhmmm....I mean teenager! Wow...it's still seems unreal! ;)

Happy Birthday, Matthew! We LOVE you SOOOO much!!!