FourTeen

My Matty,

You are 14 today! In some ways, you seem so much older and more mature than 14. You certainly look older than 14. But in other ways, I can hardly believe that you are going off to high school in a few months. The years sure are short. As the middle child, I have probably over-compensated on loving on you because I never want you to think you are stuck in the middle. However, I think I am starting to annoy you with my constant hugs. Every time you walk by me, I reach for a hug. Maybe it is also because you are a man of few words. I rarely know what is going through your head, so I suppose I reach for you in hopes that our non-verbal communication will communicate how much I love and adore you.

You would not let me interview you this year, so I am taking my best guess at the following standard birthday questions:

Who's your best friend? Roman Ayala and Kyler Beppu. You also hang out a lot with Andrew Condino, Blaine Richardson, Danny Katz, and several other boys that I do not know well - Tomoki, Ethan, Oz, Luke, Brighton, as well as several guys on your baseball team.

What's your favorite color? I would say black and gray because those are the colors you wear most days. I wash a lot of black hoodies and sweatpants!

What do you want to be when you grow up? A MLB Player, duh!

What's your favorite subject? PE (but you are still very strong in math)

What's your favorite food? Spam Musubi. You get so excited when I make this for your lunch or snacks. I think it's disgusting, but you can eat endless amounts of it.

What's your favorite restaurant? Aji, Tapatio, Chipotle, Wingstop

What's your favorite vacation spot? Believe it or not, I would say any beach. Coming from the kid who used to hate the beach because it gave you headaches and ear infections, this is a big change!

Here are more tidbits about you at age 14:

• You shaved your head last weekend. Dad and I were on vacation in Costa Rica, and you texted me saying, "Im buzzing" When I replied to ask if you were sure you wanted to do that, you replied, "too late" It is a pretty drastic change from the long hair on the top of your head, but I am thrilled I can see your eyes now. 
• You sing in the shower. I love listening to you sing when you get home from a baseball practice or game. The other night, you were singing "Your Love" by The Outfield. It is hilarious to hear you belting "I don't wanna lose your love tonight!" You also love singing to Zac Brown Band.
• You are shaving your mustache and probably need to start shaving your cheeks soon.
• Your teeth are almost perfectly straight. There is maybe one tooth that could use a little tweaking if you want to do Invisalign someday, but I am grateful for the savings you are giving us in orthodontia treatments!
• You are still gluten-free. However, you keep pushing the GF limits. I work my bootie off to make GF meals for you, but then I will learn that you go to McDonald's with your buddies and eat a Big Mac. 
• You do not have a girlfriend at this time, but I suspect you have a lot of admirers. I learned this week that the DC trip you are taking with your 8th grade class next month will only have 8 boys and over 40 girls. Nice odds!
• You binge TV shows on Netflix. On a random evening when you do not have any practices or homework, you will disappear into the bonus room and watch shows for hours. Your current show is S.W.A.T.
• At last measure (in March when you were at the doctor for the flu), you were 5'7 1/4" and 136 pounds.
• You wear too much cologne. Sometimes you will come downstairs in the morning, and the smell following you gives me a headache. I keep teasing you that cologne should be applied with one squirt. It's not body spray! Whenever it is nice outside, I open your bedroom window to air out your room.
• You read a devotional by Tony Dungy every night before bed. Religiously, no pun intended! I also catch you watching TikTok/YouTube videos with Bible verses and devotionals. You are not able to attend Young Life camp this summer, and you very upset about it. I will never know what happened at Young Life camp last summer, but you have been different (in the best way) ever since.
• Grades: You are an A/B student. Last trimester, you had 3 As, 1 B+, 1 B- and a C. When I confronted you about your grades, your response was that you had As in the two classes that matter for your high school GPA (Spanish and Algebra). I had to laugh because you're not wrong! I appreciate your strategy.
• I have gotten a few phone calls from the school about you this year. Thankfully, they are mostly good. One day, you were falsely accused of vaping in the boys' bathroom. It was later determined that the vape detector had gone off in the girls' bathroom. Another time, I got a call from the assistant principal because two of your friends were planning a (friendly) boxing fight at Lake Boren Park after school on a Friday, and the principal wanted to make sure I knew about it.While you are a good kid, you have been hanging out with some friends that are known to cause trouble (Roman), so you have a bit of a target on your back. You are a good kid!
• You are still extraordinarily gifted in baseball. I hope that someday dad will write a blog post about all of your baseball talent and accomplishments because he can articulate it better than me. I love watching you play. You practice hitting in the garage daily, and your dedication is paying off. You've had some awesome hits during the baseball season thus far.
• You have decided to play high school basketball and baseball. Unfortunately, your football career was over before it started. While you could absolutely play three sports in high school, your main focus will be baseball with a little basketball on the side.
• You love head massages. Some nights I hesitate before going in to your room to say goodnight, because I know you will ask me for a massage. Someday, I will miss giving you those massages. In the moment, though, I am always so tired and ready for bed.
• You lost a classmate a couple of weeks ago, quite tragically. His dad shot him and his mom in the head before turning the gun on himself. It was absolutely shocking and devastating, especially when you learned the identity of the victim and realized that you had PE with him last trimester. While you are a man of few words, I knew this affected you big time. We've had some good talks as a result.
• Your relationship with Taylor has grown deeper this year. Sometimes, I will walk into her room (she always has her door closed) and be surprised to find you sitting in there. I tease Tay that she is going to have more influence over you in the next two years than I will, because she will be driving you to school and you will certainly tell her more than you'll tell me. I pray the two of you remain close!
• Your relationship with Brayden ebbs and flows. Even though the two of you have very little in common, there are days when you will hang out and do things together. This makes my momma heart smile! You have been such a wonderful mentor to Bray this year as he has navigated the middle school for the first time. It certainly helps that you are the cool big brother. Then there are other times when you are downright mean to him. Ugh. Siblings!

My prayer for you in the coming year, as you start high school, is that you will stay true to yourself and that your moral compass will help you make good choices.  High school will unravel a whole new world of temptations. I hope you have the most wonderful high school experience and choose to be a leader instead of a follower. 

I love you, Matty-Boy. You have my heart forever!
Love,
Mom

This is the look I got when I asked my birthday-eve boy to smile for a picture - new hair cut and all!

Birthday-eve dinner at Aji

Per usual, Matty had a baseball game on his birthday. 

We celebrated after the game with the Sheweys, Jacksons and Taylors.