He's 14!

Today was Benjamin's 14th birthday.  That is amazing to me that my little baby is now 14.  He normally wakes up about 10am, but today he was up at 6am.  He didn't want a birthday cake, just a bunch of white chocolate chip cookies.  I bought a bunch at Costco (his favorite kind) and piled them like a cake and put candles on it.  I remember when he was little we used to always have watermelon cubes piled like cake with candles in them!  Some things change, but still, he isn't a huge fan of birthday cake.  He munched on cookies the whole time he opened his presents.  He got black-out curtains (to allow him to sleep in more easily in the summer), new snorkel mask and swim shorts, a hydroflask water bottle, and a keyboard that hooks up with the computer for composing and editing music.  He was very pleased with his presents and then launched into 14 straight hours of video games and mindless streaming video content.  At 9pm I told him he needed to turn it off and he still asked for more time and gave more reasons why he needed it.

I love Benjamin very much.  I worry about him constantly as well.  I worry he has a screen addiction and it will take over his life down the road.  I worry that he's very socially self-isolated and doesn't seem to mind never seeing his friends for months on end.  I worry that he never prays, reads his scriptures, or shows any interest in anything religious.  On the other hand, I have seen him with his friends and they all seem really good together and seem to get along well.  I've also seen him work really hard and do an amazing job when the deadline requires it and he's able to forgo screens to get things done if it is required.  I've seen him give some wonderful family home evening lessons. So, I guess I'm hoping that all my worries are simply the kinds of worries that every mother has and that they're unfounded.  I'm hoping that all that intelligence, creativity, athletic ability, and grit that I see in him will come to the forefront as he matures and allow him to make something amazing happen and will help him to find a path that will bring him joy.  In the meantime, I will continue to drive him crazy with my attempts to teach and guide while he thinks he already knows everything and that I'm incredibly "thick" as he put it yesterday.

On the other end of the family spectrum, little Peter is also growing and learning so much.  Today Kelly handed him an entire banana, rather than cutting it up as I do, and I absolutely expected it to end poorly.  However, Peter loved that he had the whole thing to himself and happily ate away at it.   He tried to eat the peel about half the time, but we worked on that.  I was pretty proud of my little guy.  He and I spent a lot of time together today while the others were on the screens all day.  We went for a walk, a bike ride, we played in the yard, and read lots of books.  Yesterday I took him to the grocery store for the first time since March.  He's grown and changed so much!  He loved the store, never got fussy, and just loved looking around and taking it all in.  We looked at the fish tanks and played with the baby toys, and had a nice time out.  Normally I wouldn't have taken him into a store, but I had gotten so sick of Benjamin yesterday and his non-stop demanding and arguing about screen time (even after being on for several hours already) and I needed to get away.  The stores are pretty much the only things open, so I decided to do my grocery shopping a day early and just get out.  However, no one was willing to watch Peter, so I took him with me.  I'm really glad I did.  He was a great little shopping buddy.