Erik

Yesterday Erik turned 15! Wow. That does not seem possible. I do remember before he was born I thought I would never have a boy. Ha! Was I mistaken. Erik is the oldest boy with four brothers and two sisters. The boys have the advantage around here. I remember when he was born that he seemed to have more hair on his chest than his father or at least overall hair count. He was sort of squished looking and everyone who came to see us at the hospital quietly said something about how nice it was to have a boy now. Then......my girl friend Mary Lynn came to visit and being the honest sort said "Boy Karin, congratulations but he sure is ugly." I laughed and told her she was the only person brave enough to tell the truth. Sure he was a little homely as a newborn but by the time he was a toddler we thought he was pretty cute. He still is.........

As a baby he went from laying around eating and growing and talking himself to sleep, to climbing stairs and ladders seemingly overnight. He was usually happy and was content to build stuff out of afghans and hangers. We allowed him to destroy the furniture as we were sort of wimpy parents back then. He would tear all the cushions off the couch and build things with them.

I got Erik an Eeyore mug this morning and he just sort of stared at me and said something about how odd I was. I told him we were going to let him drink from it when he was saying some whoa as me sort of comment. I also told him he could let other people drink out of it when they were acting Eeyorish. I got a Pooh Bear mug for myself since I am a bear with little brain. We went out to breakfast and he was not too talkative. He said he was hungry so he didn't have too much to say. That was my mother/son bonding for the morning. He asked for a nice wool hat for his birthday so that was the other part of our mission. We succeeded in finding a black wool dress hat and he was quite pleased with himself. He strutted through the mall afterwards commenting on how disgusting the store displays were. How Horner of him.

Erik is a great kid. He is famous in my mind for ripping stuff apart, working hard, building bigger stuff such as forts in the woods, making great plans for himself and surviving being the younger sibling of Anna and the older sibling of the rest of them. It is a hard job you know. He and his dad are two peas in a pod. He, unlike his dear old dad, can sing well and always has had this ability. He sang a few boy soprano solos at church before his voice changed and I am sure he could handle doing that again with his grown up voice.

There is not much not to like about Erik. I am saddened he is already 15 but proud of him in all his endeavors. If he can find a career that requires hard work as well as work ethic, then he will go far. I was actually very attracted to his dear old dad's work ethic when we first met so this trait is being passed on to the next generation. Hopefully work ethic will count for something as he goes out into the world.

Happy Birthday Erik! Love mom.