Please join me in wishing a very happy and blessed 20th birthday to our son 5M, who, by virtue of his status almost exactly halfway between our oldest and youngest children, is the closest any of our children can come to claiming the designation as our 'Middle Child', even though his Borg Designation '5-of-8' might suggest something more like 'early in the second half'. No matter. He is a very earnest, and yet very fun-loving young man, and he has mainly been a joy to Jen and me, and our family.
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Also, with this birthday, we are down to only two teenagers in our family. I was going through the math recently, and cumulatively, we have had three teenagers for roughly 9 of the past 11 years. We have never had four (2F turned 20 a month before 5M turned 13; likewise 3M and 6F); we will never have three again (6F will turn 20 a month before 8M turns 13). By the time 7M turns 20, we will have had at least two teenagers for all but a month of 20 consecutive years. . . (*tic*). . . (*tic*). . . (*tic*). . .
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The children in our family fall in this odd 10-year cycle, wherein each of our children (except 4M) has a 'decade buddy' among his/her siblings. 1F was born in 1982, 2F in '85, 3M in '88, 4M in '90, 5M in '92, 6F in '95, 7M in '98 and 8M in '02. Thus, 2F/6F are a 'decade pair', born in the '5-years' '85/'95; 3M/7M are '88/'98. 1F/5M/8M are a '2-year' triad '82/'92/'02.
Alas, 4M has no 'decade buddy' for the '0-years'. But Jen and I were married in 1980, and we moved into our current house in 2000, so his 'decade buddies' are just a tad more 'abstract' than his siblings', I suppose (and having three children after Jen's 40th birthday would have seemed just gratuitous on the part of the Universe, don't you think?). He was born barely a week after our 10th anniversary, so when I took Jen out to dinner in honor of our Tin Anniversary (seriously? tin??), she was very great with child (and heck, she's pretty darn good, even without child. . . *ba-doomp!*). Which just seemed fitting, somehow. . .
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Happy Birthday to the 20 year old. Being a middle child is not easy, the oldest are always favored and the youngest are babied.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Kay!
DeleteMore than any of our kids, 5M had tended to get lost in the shuffle. I'm sure our older kids are favored in some ways, but they've also tended to suck up parental resources with the trouble they've gotten into. . .
happy 20th birthday. ya lost me on all the mathematical patterns of decade buddies. it's saturday and i only woke up recently. nonetheless, i hope the celebration is a great one.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the math, my friend; and on a Saturday, no less. . . To simplify (perhaps) - all of our kids have been born in years ending in 0, 2, 5, or 8, which makes for some interesting patterns. . .
DeleteI, too, hope his birthday was a happy one. Alas, between his job and his, um social demands, we don't see much of him just lately. . .
I remember 20 as being almost ...but not quite ...there. Now, in hindsight, I know how well I had it.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to 5M.
You know what's funny, Skip? My own 20th birthday was sorta the first installment on my mid-life crisis. I was suddenly struck by the realization that there were things that I wanted to do in my life that I never would, and that in part because of my own shortcomings and limitations. On my 20th birthday! Sheesh. . .
DeleteHappy happy .... seems like you folks have birthdays every year for everybody. Funny how that happens, huh?
ReplyDeleteSeems like Jen is always great with child, ya know? Or so says you .... ;-)
Well, you know, when you stop having birthdays, the implications are kinda dire. . .
DeleteAnd, Jen has spent 6 years of her life being pregnant. If we add a year of nursing for each of them, that's 14 years of her life that someone besides herself has been drawing on the resources of her body. . .
I wonder if people get tired of birthday cake at your house and ask for something else? Blueberry pie, anyone?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to 5M!
ReplyDeleteBeing an only child (as MY WIFE calls it, a "lonely" child, but I rather enjoyed it, so...) I guess I'll never know the particular joys of brothers and sisters. Must be something to it, otherwise nobody would have 'em, right? :-)
Bijoux - The Birthday Person gets to choose. Several of our kids ask for cheesecake, which I suppose is, technically, cake. But we've had a couple of 'em ask for pie, on occasion. . .
ReplyDeleteSuldog - I've always written our large number of children off to my own limitations of self-control. . .