cartwheels turn to car wheels...

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers are gone now.

Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town...

Today was our son's 16th birthday. We are living out the lyrics to one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs, The Circle Game (Ladies of the Canyon album). Somehow 16 is a really big year in my mind.

We enjoyed a pleasant day. I worked from home in the morning and took the afternoon off to spend with him (probably more of a gift to me than to him -- I love my time with my boy). He got to summer-time sleep late, have his choice of breakfast (I made banana-walnut pancakes), and we went shopping at a nearby (quiet) mall for some school clothes and things he has had in mind to get. We grabbed lunch out and headed home for a baseball game (he is on three teams this summer, so he seems to have at least one game every day of the week - and sometimes 2 or 3!)

Spending ordinary, relaxed time with my son gives me a happy and calm feeling. I find that he converses with me most when it is just the two of us in the car for a bit of a ride. We talked about the practice test he had taken online that morning for his driver's permit... he was surprised at some of the tricky questions when he thought it would be a piece of cake to get all the answers right without even studying the web site. (It is surprising how much 16 year olds know... they know everything!) Needless to say we spent part of that time talking about everything "driving rules" related on the ride from our town to the next and I re-learned somethings I have taken for granted on autopilot.

At the baseball game, Matt had a good hit and a good play at short, and then the three of us went out for dinner at his pick - hibachi. Tom and I never pass up a chance for some good sushi. The weather was very warm and sunny, just like on the day Matt was born and like those early infant days at home. I had fun in the early morning while he slept looking through photos of him through time and putting up a little happy birthday album on Facebook. I was overwhelmed that many of my family members and friends from different times and places in my life "liked" the photos and wished him happy birthday. I don't often post those kinds of things there, and found it so joyful to have my Facebook wall "blow up" with others celebrating my joy and his special life.

Here are just a few photos from the Facebook spread... I had put up about a dozen there, but this blog has shown progression of the child over time... so for the purpose of high drama, just three:

(First photo is 1998, second is 2003, and the third is just a few weeks ago. *Notice my Dad casually holding up his Boston cap in my Yankees household. He is a rascal, that one.)