Fourteen

Four days and one hour ago, my second-born turned 14.

Sean
My quiet one
with the dry sense of humor.
The one whose eyes sparkled as a 5-year-old kindergartener when the teacher would tell jokes that flew high over the other kids' heads.

Sean
the inventor, player and collector of games.
The reader of manuals.
The home-body.
The content one.
The lover of all things historical and geographical.

Sean
The master of wordplay.
My least verbal one, who, ironically, has contributed the most to the family vocabulary.
"Circle try" = motorcycle
"Magic Chowder" = powdered sugar
Et al.
A typical Sean exchange a number of years ago:
Mom "Wow. That was a huge bird. I wonder if it was an eagle or a hawk."
Sean "It was a hawk. I didn't see it, but it was a hawk."

Sean
My sleep talker.
Camping trips are always interesting, when we all sleep in close proximity to one another. Invariably a classic Sean-sleep-talking line emerges such as:
"I COLLECT COWS!!!!"

Sean
The one little kids LOVE.
It's a gift, most surely.
I continually marvel when this boy is around little kids;
he's literally a KID MAGNET.
They climb on him, hug him, want him when they're hurt.
He makes them giggle like nobody's business.
The little ones know he's one cool kid.

Sean
The musician.
The guitar was your salvation in 7th grade (thank you Mr. Smit),
and now I can't believe the sounds that emanate from your room
as your fingers fly across the strings.

Sean
The complex and quietly amazing one.
Not many people get to see how tender is your heart
and how much you despise injustice in the world.
Your creativity is not easily quantifiable, but it is THERE.
I think you're a closet Renaissance Man
and it will take a long time for the world to see and appreciate your special brand of sweet ingenuity.

You're the hardest of our three kids to characterize,
because of your many subtleties.
And therein lies the beauty of Sean:
We get to keep discovering more and more of you.

Happy 14th Seany J.
You are loved.