![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPyoZVSXuBPP5bC6H8YyIBc27Gbd6m35wU1L2QtpOUJoWK0gvELEsI1e3tPiRXOkiJaTM9ERAJ08c3B2FDJrM-fK2D59f2nsd5gyOnSigZtcMzgCg4pkOkxQfu3stLHOmPygYUGQJJ40P/s200/63746755973_3300.jpg)
The first twelve years have been a big blur but quite wonderful and I hope the next thirty or more (hopefully I'll live that long) will be even better.
Gone are the days of helping him learn to ride a bike, draw a picture, read a book, and take a nap. Now it's on to how to drive a car, use your agenda, wash your clothes, and organize your life. How to plan for tomorrow but enjoy every minute we have hear on earth. How to insure the future but still not worry too much about how we'll be getting there but enjoy the journey instead.
I am looking forward to watching the new directions his personality takes, his new interest that are found, new passions that develop, and new worlds he follows. I understand I will almost hate him, and he will hate me, at some point during the path to adulthood but hopefully that will be short lived and leave no hard feelings for either of us. I only hope I can be as good as a father to him as mine was to me and instill something that will follow him forever.
It's really all about the journey but it's hard to remember that as we live in the moment.
Goodnight child - and good morning teen. It's going to be fun.
Image by Stephen Nolen