Jay turned 17 on Thursday! He was also born on Thursday, May 21st so it felt extra birthday-ish, to me at least. I can and can't believe my firstborn is 17 years old. Jay summed it up when asked the question "what is scary?" on his birthday interview. Jay answered, "The future."
May 21st was the last day of early morning seminary of the school year. Jay opened his one and only birthday present before seminary, so we were all bleary eyed and rough throated while trying to sing happy birthday to him at 5:40am, haha. Inside the gift bag was a t-shirt with "Go Steve!" written on it. The gift was a trip to visit his cousin Steve in Missouri one more time before Steve leaves on his mission at the end of June. Jay was mourning all year that he won't be able to see his best cousin buddy for 3 whole years due to their mismatched ages and plans for missionary service. I saw the opening for a meaningful gift, and managed to snag a plane ticket that didn't bust the bank. My sister really wanted me to come see her too, so she got me a ticket with her airline points!
Aside from this exciting birthday gift-trip, Jay had a bit of a rough birthday this year. May 21st was day 1 of the district track meet that Jay didn't qualify for. He found out that he didn't make it to the district meet the day before his birthday, and the meet was on his birthday. Big bummer. He planned to go to the meet anyways and cheer on his friends. On his birthday, however, Jay started feeling sick at school and ended up coming home early. Thankfully it was nothing lasting or serious, so Jay wasn't too miserable. He had leftovers for dinner (I didn't cook because Jay was originally going to attend the district track meet). He did have some of his Costco cheesecake on his actual birthday, but I discovered too late that our supply of birthday candles was depleted, so his candle assortment was a strange math equation: 1 regular candle, a used #5 candle, and a used #2 candle (1 & 5+7 = 1 & 7, which in candle lingo is basically 17).
The day after his birthday on Friday, Jay spent the night at his friend's house...but his friend's cat kept jumping onto the bed and Jay's allergies kicked into high gear so he had to come home at 1am to shower, take Benadryl, and sleep in his own cat-free bed. Thanks to that allergy attack, Jay's eyes were bloodshot all day on Saturday, when I dragged him out in the hot sunshine at day 2 of the district track meet to support Rose and his other teammates.
Jay calmly handled the setbacks of his first few days as a seventeen year old. We managed to get some real birthday celebration in at last on Sunday, with a birthday dinner with the extended family. Macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, and watermelon, in large quantities: for the mac, I cooked 4 pounds of pasta. Mixed with cheese sauce, that made 7 liters of mac! I also slow cooked 7 pounds of pulled pork, and the only reason we didn't eat an entire watermelon was the melon was not super flavorful. There were minimal leftovers. The cousins know what to expect at White family birthday dinners, and they came hungry!
After Thursday, I got new candles to use on Jay's cheesecake for the family birthday dinner on Sunday, so he had a fresh #1 and a fresh #7 on his cake. After dinner on Sunday night, Jay invited the 4 cousins to stay late and play Minecraft together. He offered to drive the cousins home at 10pm. So they stayed and had fun together in the basement for a few extra hours. These cousins are all 4-8 years younger than Jay, so it was sweet that he wanted them to stay and play. Yay for family!
We love our Jay! I'm trying not to think/ache too much over the fact that this birthday marked the beginning of our last year with Jay at home. Sniff. I love my boy.
1 comment:
Time with dear ones — Best birthday gift ever!
Mom scores big time!
We love Jay.
Post a Comment