Sweet Sixteen

16 years ago, I was a baby raising a baby.  The hospital nurses somehow felt comfortable strapping a tiny human into my car after teaching me how to change a diaper.  God knows what He's doing, because this boy helped me grow up.  He has taught me everything from how to love unconditionally to the definition of a Pythagorean theorem.  I love his stinkin' guts and I'm so grateful he made the decision to finish high school in Kearney.  Selfishly, I wanted him around for as long as possible.  I can't stand to think of sending him off to college yet.

Brevan's birthday was on a Sunday and (mom of the year award here) his presents hadn't arrived in the mail yet.  Webbs invited us over for dinner, so we decided to celebrate Brevan's birthday a couple days later and spend the evening with family.  Kelsi had just turned 17 that week, so we had a combined party for these two awesome teenagers.

Before I go on, let me explain that Ryan unexpectedly whipped out his hair trimmer one day and started cutting Brevan's hair.  Bad idea!  Brevan looks bald and old.  From now on, Ryan is banned from having his clippers anywhere near our children.

Brevan's sad little pile of presents was actually full of exciting stuff.  Gifts just get smaller (and more expensive) as kids age!

Brevan eats, breathes and lives math.  He dreams of being a college math professor someday, so every gift he got revolved around math or programming.  Something called a Raspberry Pi (no, you don't eat it), books about famous mathematicians, a phone case with algebraic equations and even a tie with math symbols.  He was a happy, geeky dude.

This was his reaction to one of the math books he received.

And this was Lindsey's reaction to the same book.

Cake fail.  Lindsey wanted to make the birthday cake, which wasn't surprising because she loves cooking (and is really great at it)!  One problem: she forgot to grease the pan first.  So we laughed a lot while eating the different halves of the messed-up cake.  We even stuck some of the candles right into the pan because we weren't about to waste that delicious cake.

Funniest 16-year-old you will ever meet.  Here are a couple recent Brevan-isms:

I was cleaning the house when Brevan appeared in front of me last week.

Brevan:  "I desperately desire to kiss a female."

Me:  "Haha!  OK, well that's good.  You might want to speak to a female soon."

Brevan:  "Oh that's one of the steps.  My friends and I have a plan.  Step A is to talk to any girl about anything for 2 minutes.  Math is acceptable."

Me:  "Wow, what's step B?"

Brevan:  "Talk to a girl about something she's interested in.  I haven't passed step A yet.  Step Z is to have a wife and a couple kids.  I have a long way to go."

On a different day, Anthony was eating dinner with our family.  The subject of girls was brought up again.

Brevan:  "I can't get a girlfriend because I don't have a Facebook status to update."

Anthony (who is awesomely geeky like Brevan):  "But you do have Google+ and that's almost the same thing.  So that should work."

I'm sure you had to be there during those moments, but my boy is a crack-up because he's very honest about his lack of social skills.  I thank Heavenly Father every day that Brevan has been able to find friends who are similar in personality and completely accept him.  

Being this guy's mom is a piece of messed-up cake.