13.

I was never in danger of feeling like I was a superior mother.

Not ever.

Because Dawson Landers was my first born child.

And from the very beginning, he took that possibility right off the plate.

It ended up being one of the things I am most grateful for in my parenting journey.

Take pride out the equation at the beginning and it changes everything…

Even as a tiny baby, he was very serious.

Today he’s thirteen and he is still a very serious and intense kid.

It was about this age, that this angelic face would get himself regularly kicked out of the nursery at church.

(I cried a lot about that at first. Looking back, I would of relaxed. Laughed more).

Despite the fact that I had been reading parenting books for fun since age 11–I had no idea what I was doing.

But I loved him something fierce.

Still do.

And countless mothers of intense, aggressive, busy, busy toddler boys used to tell me, “You can do this. He will test you and exhaust you as a toddler. But wait until he is a teenager, he will be so much fun.”

And you know what? I think they were right.

I think these teen years that we begin today are going to be awesome.

He’s such a cool kid.

Not perfect.

But really a great one.

.

We are enjoying him and his growing maturity.

We love his dry sense of humor.

(Now that he is this mini adult, he does it on purpose.

And even though Andy and I try really hard not to give him the satisfaction when his humor is boarder line–most of the time we can’t help it. )

We love that he hates to lose so much.

We love he is so competitive.

We love that he is very unconcerned about being “cool.”

We love that he is very aware of others.

Very sensitive.

We love that pulls from unknown resources to rise to an occasion.

We love that appears to be excellent at choosing friends.

We love that his conscience is sharp.

We love that his emotions are bit extreme. (well, sometimes we love that.)

We love that he is a quiet, natural leader. Mostly unaware of his influence.

We love that he is ours.

We are profoundly proud.

Happy 13, Dawson boy.

And he loves that on his 13th birthday he stands directly eye to eye with his mother.

Moms, do be careful about that blinking stuff….