Westmoreland Asays

My oldest son, Aaron, has turned 11 years old, so we sat down for our yearly interview of irrelevancy (see video at end of post). To celebrate his birthday, Meg let him invite five friends for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, Catching Fire at one of the larger cinemas, and a sleepover at our house. After they came home from the movie, I wowed them with how easy and fun it was to Chromecast videos onto our TV. Having so many kids over, however, contributed to a headache and illness that besieged me for the next couple of days. Aaron continues to grow physically and develop his mind and hone his talents. He is responsible enough to manage his brothers for short stints and for getting to and from various places in the neighborhood--almost always by bicycle, his preferred method of travel--whether going to school or a friend's house or to the grocery store or the bank. He still likes going to Pokemon League, loves playing Minecraft, thrives at building complex creations with Legos, and ...

I still remember the birth of Aaron and how worried I was about not knowing how to take care of him. Contrast that to today, when I let him ride his bike to the neighborhood game shop a few miles away to play Pokemon League with his friends, and didn't think twice about it. A lot can happen in ten years. Aaron celebrated his birthday with a dozen friends at Cloud Cap Games , a place he loves to hang out most Saturday mornings (see above) and which Meg knows the owner well. We used to live on the same street as the shop, but we moved shortly after they opened their doors. Aaron and his friends played games; feasted on pizza, homemade cake, and ice cream; opened presents, and made a ton of noise. It's hard to brag too much about Aaron, since I'm his dad and he is my first-born, as it comes off the wrong way. But I really enjoy Aaron. I love spending time with him. I like playing games with him (usually he is a good sport, but he still has his moments when he quits be...