Satchel, Age 12

I have a freaking 12 year old! he's been acting like it for awhile so that mitigates it a bit. He is very much 12 and I will say that 12 is not my favorite. He still has moments of utter sweetness and delight, but wow, yeah. Puberty. Not ready!



We started his birthday a bit early since we all had Good Friday off. He really wanted to go to Flight and try the molten cake. As a bonus, he also had this giant hamburger featuring a brick of fried mozarella cheese.



I love that he is a foodie. He described the molten cake as "life changing."



The best thing to come out of the meal (for me) is his now regular use of the word "charcuterie."

After lunch I dragged him and Jiro to the Brooks for the Dali exhibit. I don't think he wanted to admit that he enjoyed it.



Saturday he was super grumpy and had to be sent home from the opening of the awesome new bike gate in Overton Park. Thankfully, Jiro was a trooper.



Before he left, I showed him my Christmas gift to the family. His response, "OMG that is SO embarrassing. Can you get my name taken off?"



Warren and Jiro continued on to a party and Satchel took a nap. When he woke up, the two of us had a lovely afternoon that included lunch at Swanky's and a shopping trip to Sports Authority. Despite not being too sporty, that is where he prefers to do his shopping. The uniform of choice for 12 year olds? Anything Nike on top, Under Armour shorts and Nike "elites" (which are socks), and Nike shoes. (Not sure how Under Armour dethroned Nike in the shorts department? The tween/teen girls/women are ALL about the Nike shorts.)

He wanted a new hoodie, but we couldn't find one in an acceptable brand. I was so like that at age 12.

I have to say, he looks pretty cute.



As you can see above, we spent Sunday with family, celebrating his birthday with a little egg hunting. Then he was FINALLY allowed to go to Game Stop and spend his birthday money AND the Christmas money he's been saving on an XBox. His life is now complete! (Or so he says.)



Oh, and there is nothing wrong with his knee. He wears that to cover up his birthmark.

We attempted a nice family dinner on Monday, his actual birthday, to culminate the festivities, but it was a total fail.

It's just going to be one day at a time around here for awhile.

Happy birthday to my beautiful boy. I'm going to do my best to weather the puberty storm along with him!