Today I have become something new

Today I became the parent of an adult. This is new territory for me. While I am proud of Drew, I am not looking forward to the new challenges.
AnDrew Jaimes was born September 14, 1989 in Landstuhl, Germany. I woke up one morning a week before my due date with a very wet bed. I thought he must have kicked my bladder and I wet the bed. But no, it was my water. I called my husband's work, but since they didn't have office phones I had to call a payphone in the hall and hope the person answering it knew who he was. A Colonel answered the phone and I asked for Donnie, and he asked if it was "time." I said it was, but that I just needed Donnie to call home. I started getting ready, waiting for him to call. I wasn't even having contractions. A few minutes later Donnie comes bursting in the door! He started throwing my maternity clothes in the suitcase, no undergarments or pajamas and nothing I could wear after having a baby, lol. And he had left the car running, which isn't legal in Germany. I calmed him down and we got ready more slowly. It wasn't an easy labor and an even more traumatic birth, followed by a 16 day separation in different hospitals. But after we were brought back together, everything went wonderfully. He took right to nursing.
Drew grew so cute and big and special to us. He didn't like to talk until he knew a word perfectly, but he did have one word he would say that made no sense at all. Whenever he wanted to ask a question, no matter what it was, he would say "Baloopah?"
Later, Drew got a baby sister. We took them to France to Smurf Wallaby Park, and he got the desire to become a Smurf. He also liked very much so to break vases. I liked to collect vases. It was not a match made in heaven. For me.
Drew has done many lovely things over the years. He super-glued his eye open. He drank a bottle of Windex with Vinegaurd. He drank a bottle of infant Tylenol. He drank his sisters Albuterol. He crawled way, way up into a top shelf up near the ceiling and took a nap, and I was on strict bedrest and could NOT help him down. He turned into a little terror for a couple of years, but then he turned around. He became a little preacher. He would preach in the bank, he would preach to parents of his friends. (this started at age 4) He grew into such a tall and wonderful young man.
Now he is in his Senior year of high school and is a DEP for the United States Air Force. I have 11 more months to call him my baby, even though he is a man.


Happy Birthday, AnDrew! I'll try to remember you are not my baby. You try to remember who pays for your food.