What does 1 and 3 make?

I knew today would come, even though I was not ready for it. Scott and I are about to embark on something we have never done before. We are now the parents of a ......TEENAGER! I'll admit it....I'm afraid....very afraid.

How can this be? Wasn't it just a few short years ago that our Nate was born on a cold and blustery day in Mayfield Hts, Ohio? Apparently, while I wasn't watching, 13 years have passed since that joyous day. Nate was born 3 days early at 12:04pm on Saturday, December 9th. He weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Today Nate is 104 pounds and 5' 1.5" tall.

Scott surprised Nate by taking the day off from work. In celebration of Nate's big day we let the boys take a break from their home school. Here is Nate with his breakfast request: eggs over-easy, toast, and hot chocolate.

Once Lilymei finished with her PT session we packed up the kids and headed to TARZA, (you know, Guam's water park). Nate was admitted for free (yippee!) and we spent the next four hours playing in the sun, splashing down the water slides, and floating on the lazy river. Lily couldn't walk yet when we were at Tarza for Drew's birthday in October so today she was having so much more fun, pushing the inner tubes around the shallow area, climbing up the stairs (by herself!!!), and yelling at the boys when they went under the waterfalls.

Once we were home and cleaned up we let Nate open his birthday gifts. Here he is with part of his gift from Gram ~ The Princess Bride movie.

After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday and dug into the ice cream cake I made yesterday/today. The story behind the 2 day cake preparation is simple....I bought 2 boxes of ice cream sandwiches on Sunday. Monday evening I started the ice cream cake. I used the first box of sandwiches with no problem. When I opened the 2nd box I noticed each one was completely dried out. Gross! (Mind you, on Guam sometimes we are left with no choice but to eat certain foods that are slightly out of date. Most of the time I don't even check the dating anymore because I would have no food in the house.) Well, these ice cream sandwiches were still in date. Unfortunately, the commissary is closed on Monday so I couldn't return the bad box. No problem; I'll just stop at the shoppette when I drop Nate off at his scout meeting. The good news ~ they had ice cream sandwiches. The bad news ~ I was not going to pay $6 for the box. Oh well, I knew Scott was going to be home this morning so I could make a quick trip back to the commissary and exchange the sandwiches and finish the cake. Nate appreciated it and we all thought it tasted great! Here is the happy teenager.

Nate is a wonderful son. He is so loving to his baby sister. Lily is really bringing out the gentler side of Nate that we haven't seen since Drew was a baby. We are so proud of Nate! Congratulations on reaching your 13th birthday Nate! We love you!