Monday, October 5, 2015

Birthday Boy

My son turned 24 yesterday. Twenty-four! We regaled his girlfriend with his birth story, and she sweetly indulged us as we all reveled in the way his intense curiosity about everything was evident even during birth. We had some laughs. His friends came over for most of the afternoon, and my husband made his favorite meal, ropa vieja, and then we sang and had cake, but we didn't do the now-traditional birthday tequila shots as he was kind of exhausted by the end of the day.

My boy is healing well from his ACL surgery. The doctor told him to put the crutches away a week ago, and to take off the leg brace two days after that and start walking as normally as he could manage. He also started physical therapy last week. The doctor said he was three weeks ahead of where most people are in healing from this particular knee surgery, which didn't surprise me one bit; my son is very fit and very determined. Plus with his EMT training he's been icing the knee and attending to it like a pro. He sometimes does too much though, and then his body reminds him that he's still healing. He gets more easily exhausted and sometimes even feels sick. He's also lost 8 pounds from not working out. I have a child who loses weight if he doesn't work out in a gym. The fates have a sense of humor.

Happy birthday, beloved boy!


12 comments:

  1. Oh, happy birthday to that beautiful man-son of yours! And happy birth-day to you. I would love to hear his birth story. I am a fool for all of them. I am so glad that he's healing well.

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    1. Ms. Moon, in a nutshell, he arrived with a black eye from hitting my pelvic bone because he wanted to see where he was going. He's always been face forward and full speed ahead, this one. He has more energy than his body can contain, though he's figured out how to deal with that.

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  2. Happy Birthday to your son, and many more! Such a resemblance to you in his older photos! Glad to hear he is having a good recovery; hard work does make a difference.

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    1. jenny_o, he used to look more like me but now he looks like his dad.

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  3. Happy belated birthday to your lovely boy. I hope that the knee continues to progress.

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  4. happy birthday to your valiant son and to the whole family; you all complete each other.

    last week, i sent your son's comment that you quoted in a previous post to my son: "Stress is working hard at something you don't love. Fulfillment is working hard at something you do love."

    and got this back:

    "thanks mom. something i need to keep in mind too."

    xo

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    1. susan, my valiant son—that is such a good word to describe him! so glad his insight spoke to your son, too. we have raised hard workers, you and i. we did that. xo

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  5. Happy late birthday to him and you and I also love that quote.

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  6. I just realized I missed this post. Happy belated birthday to your son! I'm glad he's healing well and I know he's happy to be more mobile.

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