FIFTEEN!

HOW in the world did this happen?   This tall, large boy who arrived so little is...fifteen years old!

And yes, in ironies of ironies, his birthday present this year, a mere four days after he broke his wrist longboarding is...a longboard.

Do you see that smile?  He is soooo excited.

Of course, there's a story here.

The graphic on the bottom of that longboard is a giraffe in a suit with a top hat and the words, "It's business time".

Cooper has a nickname.  It is meant fondly, and we use it often.  He is called, "Raffi", which is short not for the children's singers name but for the animal.  Giraffe.

He has grown so fast and so much, he is a bit...shall we say, ungainly?  Things spill often in his hands.  Milk tips, plates fall.  Did I mention spilled milk?  One night when the milk was all over the counter just seconds after I cautioned him on carrying a glass the way he was carrying it, I thought I would either yell in complete and utter exasperation, accomplishing nothing, or address it in some other way.

With Cooper, finesse goes a long way.  And I looked at him and smiled and said, "Coop.  You are my giraffe..." and from there came a name.  It is also great shorthand.  

Just days from the naming event, something else went flying, I think a plate of food this time as he walked from the dining room to the kitchen, and he started laughing and said, "Raffi strikes again".

There you have it!

So when he showed us this longboard, it was a DONE DEAL!  It was so fun to give it to him.  And I might add that watching him carve and move and fly down the hill on that board is, as they say, "poetry in motion".  Nothing ungainly about him on that longboard.

I am lame, but just seeing that makes me smile!

And being the dorky mom that I am, yes I did utter those words to get him in to study for his algebra final.  

Getting a new longboard means you have an old one.  

And having a little brother who has been longing {pardon the pun} for a board for awhile now, it was so sweet to have Cooper immediately go outside and get his old Sector 9 board and pass it on to Luke.

Look at those brothers!  Luke was so excited, and Cooper even spent a huge portion of sunday outside teaching Luke the art of longboarding.

Such a great big brother.

Ice cream celebration!  Only the best of Sebastian Joe's for us!  Raffi got a double since he was the birthday boy.  My strawberry rhubarb was magnificent.  It was a beautiful day to sit outside and recount the day he was born.  I do that every year.  

And so begins a year of driver's ed  {save me!}, high school at a new school, learning, growing and growing up.  We pray it is always in God's grace and for His glory.  That Cooper walk in the Way that is Life.  That Cooper find true delight in the Lord, and grow in truth as he grows in years.

What a blessing fifteen years of Cooper has been.