Well, it’s happened. We are officially a household of “teenagers”, and only teenagers.
Asher turned 13 today!!!
I’ve been referring to the boys as “teens” for a while now, since Ethan is in fact 14 at this point. But since Asher was only 12 until today, I would often say things like, “Yeah, I have teenagers…well, one teenager and one almost teenager”…
But now I just have to say, “I have two teenaged boys“. SOB.
It’s so weird. Normal, too, because obviously each year they inch forward a little. But I envision parents of teenagers to be like, my friends’ parents when I was a teenager. Sorry, but I am not nearly old enough to be a parent of “two teenagers”. Errr….wait. I guess I am.
I guess on the plus side (or minus, depending how you look at it), my boys are on the more late bloomer side, physically. So neither of them really LOOK like typical teenagers, although Ethan has hit a “fast velocity growth phase” now, as his doctor described it. On our trip in March, the boys were about the exact same height. Now, as of November, Ethan is a full 2 1/2 inches taller than Asher. And he doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Asher, poor thing, hasn’t grown so much as a centimeter I don’t think since August. Haha. We keep telling him, “Your time will come!!” He likes to point out that at least he’s taller than Ethan was at this age. (Not saying a lot, but still a victory from his perspective.)
But even Ethan with his growth spurt happening has more catching up to do before he looks like a “real” teenager (whatever that means). He’s getting there though. 🙂
Ivan often comments that he’s actually glad our boys are later bloomers, because they still kind of look like our babies a bit longer. Some boys are 6’1″ and look like full grown men by age 12, but are still so young inside! And emotionally.
I’m mostly okay with just hanging on to their cute little selves a bit longer. Although I know it can be challenging for them, from a peer standpoint, to be the littlest and shortest in middle school.
This will be the first birthday I don’t really get to spend with Asher! Obviously he’s at school now, and at 4 pm today I’ll be dropping him off and he will be heading out with his team to Iowa for a weekend long swim meet. Staying in a hotel with friends, only Coaches and a couple parent chaperones along! I am not chaperoning- NO THANK YOU. Give me the free weekend!! I see enough swim meets. 😉
We celebrated in advance last night.
First, Asher and I stopped to get him a slice of Rocky Rococo’s pizza (his request):
Ivan wasn’t home yet and Ethan had basketball, so it was just me and Asher. Then he had swim practice.
After, we did a little mini-party, just the 4 of us at home.
I had this waiting for him when he and Ivan got home from swim:
Ethan made a pan of brownies while I wrapped the gifts.
We learned that if you say, “Alexa, play Happy Birthday” to our Samsung Smart Refrigerator, she will actually sing Happy Birthday to you. Ha.
Then he opened his gifts. His main gift was this red Nike sweatshirt he really, really wanted. I don’t know what is so special about it, but it’s like, WAY more expensive than a normal sweatshirt should cost. (And more than we would ever normally spend on a sweatshirt for him “just because”. Hence, the birthday gift.) It kept selling out on Nike.com, but Ivan watched for days and eventually nabbed one when they restocked.
I also got him a new winter hat that matches it nicely.
He got a book series (City of Embers) that he requested. Turns out, as he opened it, Ethan said, “Wait, I already HAVE that series!” Oops. I thought it looked familiar! lol. I guess we can return that and he can just read Ethan’s.
Then Ethan got him the new Keeper of the Lost Cities book, a series Asher has been seriously obsessed with for a few years now.
Ivan and I also got him a microfiber towel for swim, and a set of exercise band loops that he wanted for the gym.
He was very, very happy with everything! He gave us big hugs and thank yous and just seemed really thrilled with the whole evening. 🙂
Now he’ll spend 5 hours after school on the road with his team, but hopefully they will have a blast.
Happiest of birthdays to my sweet Asher!!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that the grocery store carries helium balloons, so no need to trek all the way to a party store. 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
Happy birthday Asher! My 12 year old (almost 13 – yikesss) also loves both of the book series you got, and I have REGULARLY found myself now accidentally buying both legos and books that we already have because I just don’t pay close enough attention anymore!!
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Hahaha, I’m glad I’m not alone! I have become much more out of touch with what books they are reading or have now that they check out so many from the school library, and we don’t read them together really anymore! Same on legos. I think I pretty much have to run any potential book purchases past them directly going forward, to ensure they haven’t read it at school or something.
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Happy birthday to Asher! I can’t believe you have teens! Since I had kids so late in life, I will be in my early 50s when my kids are teens! Hopefully people don’t think I’m their grandma, not their mom. 😉 I think our boys will be similar to yours and will look younger than their age – at least Paul will. He’s 4th percentile for weight so is very very tiny for his age. One of my nephews was really big for his age and it was hardest for them in the toddler to preschool years because other people thought that he was older. So they got dirty looks at church sometimes – which is ridiculous because that’s the last place people should be judging/giving dirty looks! But nevertheless, it happened!
Will’s birthday is tomorrow so they’ll celebrate his bday at school today. Tomorrow we are having a lowkey party with family. But for the last 3-4 months, if you ask Will how old he is in Spanish, he confidently says DOS! Which is pretty funny. Now he will finally be as old as he thinks he is.
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Happy birthday to Will! Gosh, I can’t believe he will be 2!! You’re making strong progress on moving out of the baby/difficult years- smoother waters ahead. 😉 (But you have a ways to go yet 🙂
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Happy birthday! Hooray for the teen house! I love having teen boys. I am sure you will too!
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happy birthday! two teenager boys! wooo… I think they’re such nice boys, never heard you talking about teenagers issues. They seem just very kind, home buddies, easy going, and responsible kids. You are very tall so I’m sure they will grow tall in no time.
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Congrats on getting to the teenage years! That’s certainly a milestone. I agree- I always thought my friends’ parents were so old when I was growing up. I mean my best friend did have an older father, he was fifty when we were in middle school, and it seemed so old then, but now I can see fifty on the horizon!
My older brother was not at all tall until he got to high school. Like I was taller than him from about 6th – 9th grade and people all thought I was the older one. He did get teased about it a lot. Also being the only Asian boy in the school probably didn’t help in a small town in the 1980s.
My oldest loves Keepers of the Lost Cities series – I’ll have to check out City of Ember and see if she would like it.
What are microfiber swim towels? I’m intrigued! My kid uses a regular beach towels when she swims, but a microfiber one sounds like it would be easier to pack? But maybe not as cozy? She hates changing at the pool so comes out with her hair dripping wet and her clothes over her wet swimsuit, which is fine, I guess, but it’s starting to get cold here….
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Oh yay!! The gifts all sound perfect (it’s hilarious that Ethan already owned a set you got him!), and he looks so happy!!!
And brownies on a birthday sound like such a perfect treat. I’d actually take brownies over a traditional cake any day!
Enjoy your weekend ❤
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My in-laws just recommend we get our nieces and nephews gift cards to Barnes and Noble at this point because they don’t know what they have read and what they haven’t. I LOVE that they are independent readers.
We have three 13 yo nephews who were all born within six months of each other. One has gone through puberty, is quite tall, stinky, and has baby facial hair. One is super tall and his voice has changed, but he’s still uninterested in girls and apparently hasn’t really started some other hormonal changes. One is still a little kid. LOL. They’ll all grow into adults when they grow into adults.
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Happy birthday to Asher (belated)! He looks like a happy birthday boy. I am still looking for a new book serious to get my almost 12 year old boy into so I am going to look into the City of Ember, so thank you for the present list 😉
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Happy birthday, Asher! My sisters kids are 14 and 13, too, and I am like… where did my little niece and nephew go. Waaaahh!!! It’s kind of a mind-bend… especially since I don’t seem them that often. I am sure for you it’s a little bit of a slower “transition”, but nevertheless noticeable.
Take comfort in the fact that you’re raising two sweet young men!
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