My Beautiful Baby Boy Turns (GULP) 26 Today!
Even though my kids are grown, I am still very much a M-O-M. I am feeling particularly sentimental today because it is my son Brett’s 26th birthday. He will forever be my beautiful bouncing baby boy – my favorite son. (Easy when you only have one son!)
It was on this day 26 years ago – and I sometimes can’t wake up to the fact that it WAS that long ago, (although he reminds me whenever I try to over-mom him) that my special son was born.
I remember that day like it was yesterday – who was there with me; what the day’s circumstances were before Brett actually appeared. I wish I could say that the day itself was perfect, but it was a bit traumatizing (expectant moms – warning – stop reading here) in that Brett was born a big bruiser, and this was combined with a doctor that did not like to do C-sections and who told me later that I have an unusually small pelvic area. To make a very long 18-hour story short, Brett was finally forcibly yanked from me with forceps and a vacuum device, resulting in his being born a true-life conehead. (Sorry for TMI, and no, a mom never forgets)
But what a gift he turned out to be. An adorable blue-saucer-eyed active boy, he was bright from the get-go, affectionate, and very socially outgoing. With a fuller brush thick mop-top head of hair and those big blues, I was constantly stopped and complimented on him. This, and having a friend who modeled, resulted in him being “discovered” for child modeling. Being an obedient, pliable child who loved to “ham it up” for cameras, he had quite a successful very part time career – that ended by his choice (and it was always his choice) as soon as sports got in the way. (Note: It’s not every child that gets his mug on the box of an internationally sold toy and his claim to fame is that he modeled with Hilary and Hayley Duff)
In a family known for quirks, Brett quickly established his own at a young age, becoming an obsessive collector of McDonald’s toys and lining them all up a certain way each night. When he outgrew that, he collected sports memorabilia with the same passion. He is in fact quite passionate about everything he loves. Sports, people, life, and now law.
He has a funny and engaging personality and is known far and wide for silly trademark antics like stacking creamers in his favorite bagel shop.
In school he established himself as an ultra-competitive, perfectionistic, remarkably gifted student, athlete, and leader. In middle school, Brett was the high scorer of his school’s soccer team and the president of the school.
In high school, he found many students even more motivated than him to his great surprise. (Bellaire High School of course) Although it dampened his drive slightly, he was rewarded when he was named a national merit scholar.
In college, he again excelled, and not just academically. Brett became a dear friend to many new people, a leader in his fraternity, a small business entrepreneur, and juggled all that with honors coursework. He did the same in law school, making a whole new group of wonderful friends, starting a new law fraternity. (social animal that he is, just like me)
He graduated law school with honors and his lifelong dream to practice law is now a reality, as he is working for a very prestigious Houston firm and a brand new member of the Texas Bar. As his mom, I am thrilled for him – and excited that he is finally local.
It is a fact that his continuing excellence has resulted in many opportunities in his life – but all of them are self-made, and self-financed.
This is not to say we just breezed through the teen and young adult years bypassing any conflict. With Brett’s and my own very stubborn and hard-headed natures, we have on many occasions lashed out in anger at one another, and had many heated disagreements.
Despite that, I always knew that Brett’s core values of love and respect for kindness, as well as his decency, and me would shine through – and they always have. I may not always agree with him and his decisions, but he knows how much he is unconditionally loved.
I’ve packed 26 years of wonderful memories of milestones, events, family time, sporting activities, and so many others; and I wouldn’t trade anything for any one of them.
It’s hard to believe where the years have gone, but my beautiful boy is no longer a baby, a child, or a teen. My son is now a man. That’s hard for me to realize all the time, but it’s true. And what an outstanding, HANDSOME young man he has turned out to be.
Happy Birthday Brett from your proud and lucky mama.
