Eighteen years ago today I welcomed an itty bitty 4 lbs 2oz baby boy into the world. At only eighteen myself it was quite frightening to say the least. The doctors told us he would have to be in NICU for at least another six and a half weeks until my due date and possibly longer. Budah however decided otherwise. He proved in his very first days what an incredibly strong boy he was and is. After only ten (long) days I was able to take my baby home with me. And from that moment on life has always been kept interesting to say the least! Shortly after he turned two years old I became a single mom of a very active lil fella. While being born a lil New Orleans boy he quickly became a Texan when we moved here a month before his third birthday. This boy loves all things Texas, but mostly his skateboarding. I got him his first deck for his third birthday not realizing it would follow him all the way until he turned eighteen. With many falls, bumps, scrapes, bruises, and giving his mama many near heart attacks I’m still his biggest fan. I couldn’t even imagine the hours we’ve spent through his childhood in skateparks, skate shops, and ditches watching all of the tricks he’s learned along the way.
Budah has gone through many interesting phases. From that itty bitty baby that wore cabbage patch kid clothes until he was three months old to spaghetti bowls on his head, being my only child to now being a big brother of three crazy little girls, from dirt bike helmets while watching tv to mohawks, from jock shorts to girls skinny jeans, with long black emo-ish hair and then pink converse, how could I forget those big clanky too big Mötley Crüe boots, the cowboy boots, or the white shrimp boots (down da road reeboks), then there was a lil bald head and sambas, playing guitars & a giant tuba, soccer balls and footballs, endless tech decks and real decks, an earring to a nose ring, all the way up to the current 50’s hair cuts, dickies, & white tees. This fella has explored all of his options before becoming who he is today in those all too quick eighteen years. I’ve loved watching the free spirt he’s always been regardless of what others thought.
Budah is capable of being a smart mouth teen like well every other kid his age, but that’s not all that is to him. He is a strong willed fella, a hard worker with endless compliments from his boss of nearly two straight years, he has good manners and has never failed to hold a door open for any little old lady that has crossed his path, he’s the big brother that teaches his little sisters to fish and throws his baby sister a little higher in the air than I like to get a giggle out of her. He got his confirmation in Church. He has never been brought home by the police, been on drugs, or came home drunk. He has always known he can talk to me about anything, even if that anything has sometimes made me cringe. And now at the young age of eighteen he has a girlfriend with a precious baby boy that he adores and treats him as if he were his own. He’s a pretty amazing at this daddy role and Dom is lucky to have such a good role model. I may nag him and hound him, but only because I see his full potential and won’t let him be anything less than he deserves. I feel like I’ve grown up along side him, and in some ways I have. I had to grow up quickly when I had him and have never stopped doing anything I needed to to protect him and always be there for him. Though I do still question how I am only 29 with a now 18 year old son?
Happy 18th birthday Budah Booskie! In all my attempts to slow you down it looks like you’ve still managed to become a young man far before I think I was ready for.
I love you!
-Mama
