{"id":1247,"date":"2009-11-08T21:06:41","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T21:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/08\/my-baby-turned-30-on-saturday-hes-a-remarkable-man-and-has-been-independent-and-away-from-home-across-the-country-actually\/"},"modified":"2014-03-16T00:18:57","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T00:18:57","slug":"my-baby-turned-30-on-saturday-hes-a-remarkable-man-and-has-been-independent-and-away-from-home-across-the-country-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/08\/my-baby-turned-30-on-saturday-hes-a-remarkable-man-and-has-been-independent-and-away-from-home-across-the-country-actually\/","title":{"rendered":"When Kids Grow Up: Their Landmark Birthdays and Mom’s Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dan<\/a>My baby turned 30 on Saturday.\u00a0 He’s a remarkable man and has been independent and away from home (across the country, actually) for a long time.\u00a0 But he’s still my only youngest child.<\/p>\n

\nIt was a landmark for him, and he had a great day, I think, while I spent much of that day in a state of astonishing gratitude.<\/p>\n

\nThat face would be enough, right?\u00a0 The amazing thing is that for every smile, grin, laugh, great story, amazing artwork, funny home-made Halloween costume (How many second-graders dress up as Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks<\/a>, after all?) there are a hundred more.\u00a0 He’s a wealth of wonders.<\/p>\n

\nI have so many friends who are close to his age, or younger, and I’ve often tried to describe what it feels like to see a beloved boy grow into a fine, honorable, creative, funny, loving and talented man.\u00a0 But they’re worrying about preschool and OT and nannies and play dates and work-life balance and it sounds so far away – probably frighteningly so.<\/p>\n

\n\"Cropped<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSo, as I have so often before, I’m telling you instead.
\nThere are few honors more moving than noting a day like this with joy. Look at this photo – a moment of pure eloquence as a young man toasts his big brother at his wedding.\u00a0 You can see how much they like each other; that’s a gift too.<\/p>\n

\nI could tell many stories<\/a> about the little boy up there and the man, too, but they are his stories to tell.\u00a0 I’m here, rather, to tell you, and myself, one more time, about my own sense of the pure honor of being a parent and riding along as our kids find their way.\u00a0 Through good times and bad, success and … not so much …. their presence is a blessing.<\/p>\n

\nSo.\u00a0 Here I am, in adequately trying to tell people — who already know the wonders of parenthood — about someone they’ve never met.\u00a0 Because, as he enters his 31st year, I’m just so glad I know him.<\/p>\n

\nHappy birthday Dan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My baby turned 30 on Saturday.\u00a0 He’s a remarkable man and has been independent and away from home (across the country, actually) for a long time.\u00a0 But he’s still my only youngest child. It was a landmark for him, and he had a great day, I think, while I spent much of that day in … Continue reading When Kids Grow Up: Their Landmark Birthdays and Mom’s Heart<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,42,7],"tags":[375,377,192,374,376,380,379,204,205,378,373],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-family","category-life","tag-30th-birthday","tag-adult-child","tag-aging-2","tag-birthday","tag-child","tag-happy-birthday","tag-mom","tag-mother","tag-parent","tag-parent-of-adult-child","tag-son"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-k7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}