This is an especially meaningful day for me - it means that I survived the teenage years!  I'm pretty sure <G> that there won't have been any magical maturation overnight now that he's 20 - but it's coming.... right?!

Surprised that I feel like taking another walk down Memory Lane?

Here's Alex at 12 days old, 'celebrating' his first Halloween:

At his 3-months photo shoot he went all out, wearing a tuxedo...with penguin buttons!  (Thank you, Tami!) 

 Here's the little man on his first birthday, October 19, 1993, ready for cake

 and enjoying presents.

On his second birthday Alex was all set to blow out the candles on his cupcake.

and had a somewhat better idea about the whole present thing:

Here's Lisa reading one of his new books, Sam's Sandwich, to him:

By 2 Alex was full-swing into the Halloween thing (certainly the eating candy part - he's the dinosaur on the far right, with a mouthful of goodies; Lisa is the Green Queen on the far left.)

At 2 it was hard to imagine he'd one day be able to fit into Dad's shoes...

He always laughed when I told him one day he'd be bigger than I am.  

But of course it did happen!

On his third birthday Alex was all smiles.

He chose a train cake for his fourth birthday.

One funny birthday story: Shortly after his 4th birthday, someone must have told Alex something about his next birthday (maybe that he would be a big boy and go to school?) and he decided he didn't want that to happen.  In fact he was quite freaked out about it.  I was able to calm his down by telling him he didn't have to 'get a new number' if he didn't want to.  Lisa, 6 years old, was incensed... How could I lie to him?  Of course his next birthday would roll around (eventually) and he'd get a new number.  I was finally able to convince her that by the time that happened (almost a year later) Alex would be more than ready, excited in fact, to be getting a new number, and she calmed down.  Telling the truth was always a biggie with me - I really made it a point not to lie to my kids) so to be caught in a lie was difficult all around.  (Not sure she ever forgave me about the tooth fairy, either.) 

Last night Alex went out to Maricopa County Fair with friends - assume they rode all the hair-raising rides and ate lots of fun fried fair food.  Don't expect to see him up and about until sometime this afternoon when I can wish him a