11th Birthday Poem

My oldest says there is nothing I can do to embarrass him. Nothing. I’ll drive slowly by him and his friends walking on the sidewalk and yell out the window “I love you” and he yells back “I love you too!” He still holds my hand. In public. And he’ll be 13 tomorrow. Thir-teen. And no I can’t believe it. What hits me even harder is that in 5 short years he’ll be off to college. (Medical school according to my husband)

When he turned 11, I read a birthday poem to him in front of his 5th grade class at school. I did the same when he turned 12, and am working on his poem for tomorrow morning. Below is the poem I wrote for his 11th. I have the 12th poem somewhere… on the same piece of scratch paper I wrote it on and hope to find it soon.

Celebrate! Rejoice to Heaven!
Today my son is eleven.

Not only is he a dutiful son and grandson
He’s also a big brother who is a lot of fun

Ask him about the day his little sister put him in handcuffs
And he was all cool, all tough
But he turned pale – - -
When I called 911 to take him to jail 

Noah’s also a good student. I hope his teacher agrees
Wait! Did he bring home any C’s?

I’m not kidding when I say
Dr. Noah’s rate of return is better than any retirement fund & 401(k)

When the phone rang it used to be for me or dad –
Now it’s laughs and giggles and a polite request
To talk to Noah and ask “Did you study for the test?”

Now I was young once, too, so I understand
But before it gets out of hand
Let me just say
I’m his girl and his number one fan!

Noah, with God as your guide
Your reliable friends and loving family by your side
When you give everything your very best try
You can move mountains and touch the stars in the sky

Happy 11th Birthday
Love Mom