AJ’s adolescence advent: Happy birthday!

We celebrated AJ’s 13th birthday yesterday—we’re now the proud parents of a feisty, brilliant teen! My little boy’s really growing up—and I am insanely proud.

My son has ADHD. Because of the hyperactivity and medication he has a high metabolism and a reduced appetite… requiring constant reminders to complete his meals. So, he’s always been very thin and underdeveloped. But in the past couple months I’ve noticed a growth spurt and an incredible muscular bulking-up—he’s become very, very strong.

But what I noticed yesterday was his joyful response to every gift and card he received. His laughter was genuine, spontaneous and delightful all who were near.

As AJ continues to grow and mature in every way—physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually—I pray every gift he receives is greeted with similar joy.

Happy birthday, son!

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/kwfd1X

Death Smirks.

After a few hard, cold hours pounding the pavement in search of yummy treats on Halloween, we arrived home and found that makeup and greasepaint were a little difficult to remove.

As AJ headed to the downstairs to take a shower, I stopped him because the light was just right and his mood perfect for a couple silly shots.

Death doesn’t seem all that scary, after all!

» #photography #iphoneography
#halloween #death #fun

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Magnetic Person[ality].

So I was at the office yesterday when Jen calls me, asking, "Does castor oil induce vomiting?" LOL… whut?

Turns out my brilliant son ingested a rare-earth, neodymium magnet. Plus a steel ball. Fortunately, the two were already joined when he swallowed them, so there really wasn’t much risk of a perforated intestine—which has been known to happen when kiddos have swallowed multiple strong magnets before. Nevertheless, we were advised to rush him to an emergency room immediately. Meanwhile, I took charge of the girls at home.

A couple hours and some x-ray imaging later, Jen and AJ were sent home—with instructions to *not* attempt to recover the objects from his stool when it eventually passes.

That would seem to fall into the category of "Life’s unnecessary instructions," but, then… AJ.

I took this photo a couple months ago after I took the kids to a showing of Iron Man. The image seemed fitting.

» #photography #iphoneography
#son #child #portrait #sepia #highkey

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/fXqUV4