Happy Birthday Buddy!
This boy has no chance for a normal life! He has charmed us…all of us… and we baby him shamelessly. Let me apologize in advance to his future wife…SO SORRY!
We were in the mountains over Memorial Day weekend. Mark’s baseball team was having a practice and a picnic late in the afternoon on Sunday and we weren’t planning to be back that early. A couple of my brothers joined us for the day on Saturday and one agreed to drive Mark home and he stayed with my mom in her new apartment.
Seriously, I felt like I was missing a limb. I never like when part of the family is away. I miss Hannah terribly when she visits my aunt in the summer. When half the family traveled to a tennis tournament earlier in the spring, that was weird and I missed them. When Luke has gone away with his buddy on trips, I couldn’t wait until he got back. I don’t think Kate’s ever been away but I’d miss her too. But when Mark’s gone, the whole energy in the house changes. It’s just sort of more dull for all of us. He brings a light and lightness to the house and keeps us all entertained but not necessarily on purpose.
He sings or hums almost constantly. I’ll be in one part of the house and hear him singing some pop song at the other end. He’s singing for an audience of one. He routinely walks around the house using one of his “walks”. Irish dance walk, futuristic walk, glide walk or “my legs don’t work” walk. He very naturally makes us all laugh. One day, I hear him from the kitchen “Oh Mercy! My oh my! Lordy, Lordy!” as he ran to get a kleenex. His nose was dripping and when he got the tissue to his nose, he sighed dramatically and kept sighing each time he wiped his nose. You just can’t help but laugh.
He’s having so much fun on his baseball team this year. He’s the youngest on a team full of good athletes. At first I worried that he would be bored if he didn’t play one of the key infield positions but that isn’t the case. He loves the coaches and enjoys just being with this group of boys. Most of them age up into Pony league next year but for now, he’s loving the team.
He might have a future in writing self-help manuals. Yesterday at lunch Kate was talking about how terrible the new Miley Cyrus song was and Mark mentioned that she and her fiancee broke up. He added that it seems like celebrities break up right before or after they are married. Then he proclaims, “Marry someone you like, man.” Brilliant!
As much as I wish Mark a happy birthday, I am not happy that these years are flying by. Growing up…..boo that!