Nothing, and I mean nothing in life shows the passage of time as a child. This ridiculous kid of mine is another year older. And while he has grown into a bigger version of himself with more sass and more smarts, he also grows more special each and every day.

He is something special all right. Just don’t know what end of the special spectrum scale he falls.

This kid who has his own sense of fashion. He wears shorts with his socks because his “legs are cold”, socks to big for his feet because he steals them from me knowing once he wears them they will belong to him (I don’t share socks, yuk), and wears t-shirts too small for his frame because the “Halloween shirt glows in the dark” and he doesn’t “own a February glow shirt”. Of course.

This kid who is afraid to bake sugar cookies for nobody other than the three of us but will produce a video for the whole 7th grade to view while wearing a pizza cat t-shirt?

This kid who does things on his own time with no regards to set standards. Even when its his own things, like teeth. Started loosing his last molar at the beginning of May but was still loosing it at the end of May. Then wanted to know if the tooth fairy was still gonna come with something special because this “tooth was more work”?

This kid who steals our phones to take selfies. And yes, selfies must be in the most obnoxious fashion possible.

This kid who can’t take regular pictures either because “those are boring” and they “need to be special”. Of course. And don’ dare mention that his freckles are cute because you will be “ughed” at with an eye roll.

This kid who thinks wearing mask are great and wanted a homemade one in green. His favorite color has been pink since forever. For a brief stage it was purple but then was back to pink. School in Texas, school in North Carolina, school in Texas: pink it was. Then one day out of the blue, it was green. He needed a new bath towel and he picked green with white stripes. Green is good. Green is renewable. Green is basic. Green is nothing special.

This kid who loves to learn. Oh sure, he despises virtual learning but there sits all the same studying his school. Love is knowledge is something special. What the picture doesn’t show are his ear buds plugged into his phone playing Bach or Enya, Mozart or Zelda Breath of the Wild soundtrack.

This kid who planned out his birthday breakfast, lunch, and dessert because it fell on the weekend meaning there was more time for specialness. Normally it is just dinner, he took advantage of the situation, the sneak.

The kid who thinks he can out smart his momma. Ha, I showed him with these special glow in the dark candles and his gift wrapped in bag, in bag, in a bag, in bag, and finally in the bag it was mailed in then opened it to discover yet another bag protecting the gift itself. The final clear cellophane wrapped bag was an added bonus.

This kid who finds nerdy shirts to the most specialist shirts of all. Did you notice the Albert Einstein shirt at birthday breakfast? What the Kid fails to understand that it is not the shirt, the color he chooses, the pictures he takes that are special. What the Kid fails to understand that it is the Kid himself that is special. He is my special.

Happy Birthday Stinky Feet!