Holy Moley! My baby is 16!! How did this happen?

On July 27, 1995, at 4:54 pm, I welcomed my first born into this world.  Eric was a wee little 6 pounds and 6 ounces.  That is so hard to remember looking at him now.  He laughed today realizing that he is 40x the size he was as a newborn.

A trip down memory lane brings lots of smiles.

Some of his early words:
cow-doctor = helicopter
me-meal = oatmeal (with dirt = brown sugar)
quit-its = carrots
ar-so-saur = dinosaur

We used to play a game with him as we were driving around.
Where does the helicopter go? To the helipad.
Where does the ambulance go? To the hospital.
Where does the boat go? To the marina.
Where does the fire engine go? To the fire station.
Where does the airplane go? To the airport.
Where does the train go? To the home depot. (well that is what he always said anyway.  It took us forever to fix that.  Was that a clue that we spent too much time in Home Depot in his early years?)

At the age of 4, he played soccer.
At 6, he wrestled.
At 9, he played football.
At 16, he is still playing football.

At 12, he got his 1st electric guitar.
At 14, he got his 2nd, a warlock.

He has always been fascinated by bugs.  He loved legos and hot wheel cars. And he always loved to read (not so much now, but that is because he is busy).

His first interest in Nascar was peaked by getting a race car (in a box of cereal, I think).  It was the #9 Dodge car driven by Bill Elliot.

From there he became fascinated with Tony Stewart driving the #20 Home Depot car.

He doesn't watch too much racing any more, but I still think he would love to go to a race someday.  We have taken him to visit Daytona and Talledega.  All he used to talk about was being a race car driver.

When he was 4, he told me he wanted to be a "talentologist". A what? A "talentologist", you know the scientist that studies dinosaurs. Ahhhh!!!!

At about 5, being an astronaut was his future ambition.  He would draw us pictures of the universe.  I remember being at my mom's one night and he drew us a picture of the universe.  It took about 10 sheets of paper and covered almost her whole living room floor.

Later the military was a frequent mention.  The last I heard, he wants to be a sniper in the Marines.

Eric has evolved into a fabulous artist.  His current favorite to do is graffiti art.  He is always working on a new style.  He loves it when I can't read what the letters are.  Someday I would love to take him to Chicago to see some much better graffiti art than just the tags we have here.

It still amazes me how this baby

Turned into this handsome young man

Happy 16th Birthday son!!! I love you!!!!