Today (Yesterday? What day is it where and when you are?) was Sam’s birthday. He’s an outlier. The rest of us have birthdays in April through June, so Sam is like a little island of cake right before pie season.

He is eleven. ELEVEN.

Wait. How old are you, Sam?

How many? Eleven many!

“How could you have an 11-year-old?” I can hear you saying, “what with your über-young appearance and all,” but yes, he is eleven. I think that puts him solidly in tweendom. I expect the snarky attitude to commence any day now.

Except…huh. He’s had that for a while now. What’s next? Surliness? Irritation? Embarrassment by his mother? Who knows? That is the joy of the oldest child. You have no idea what’s coming next. Is it moodiness? SURPRISE! It’s irrationality!

Personally, I’m hoping for undying, emotive love for his mother.

(Prepare to be disappointed, Stimey.)

Regardless of what is to come, birthdays in Stimeyland are a happy occasion—and not just for the birthday boy.

I have NO idea what he’s so damn happy about, but GOOD FOR HIM.

Sam’s birthday morning went pretty much like this: Slept through hockey practice, tried to stay in bed as long as possible, annoyed birthday child by checking email before brushing teeth and therefore putting off gift unwrapping by several minutes. Then Sam opened 8 billion pages worth of reading material and I steam cleaned the carpets in preparation for his birthday party tomorrow. As you do.

*-|-* <—That’s me looking at my dog with squinty, mean eyes. She makes our house smell bad.

I had baked a birthday cake for Sam last night, but I saved the icing so Sam could help me today.

Sam is extremely conservative in his icing usage.

I think we can all agree that it turned out to be tasteful and subtle. Also gooey.

It says “SAM RULES.” At least he doesn’t have self-esteem issues.

Sam had a soccer game today, so we didn’t have any big outings planned, although I think given a choice, what they ended up doing was probably at the very top of their list. This is what they ended up doing:

There’s Jack, playing video games.

And then Quinn…playing video games.

I bet Sam is reading. No…video games.

I bet Alex is doing something responsible. Huh. Nope.

I took a nap.

It was a quiet, lovely afternoon. Sam was very happy. It was lovely.

And the cake was not only beautifully decorated, but delicious.

Sam is a phenomenal kid. He is smart, kind, sensitive, playful, and intellectually curious. He possesses the opposite forces for all of those wonderful traits as well, which makes him utterly unique. It is a joy to watch him mature. Happy birthday to my beautiful boy. Even if you’re an outlier.

Hell, especially if you’re an outlier.