Steve update

Well, I didn't take any pictures this week or weekend....yet, but I wanted to share a little Steve update. (Starting with the fact that he wants to be called Steve.) He is officially 12 and a half, but too old to care about the half anymore. He is over 5'7 and weighs just under 115 pounds. He wears a men's small or medium depending on the top. It still blows my mind to walk into a store like the Gap and realize I have to go to the adults side. There is a kid's store, the Children's Place, at the mall connected to our office building that is closing, and I felt the need to go in and reminisce about buying him button shirts and sweater vests for him there when he was little. I remember when he was in 4 year old kindergarten he went through a phase when he always wanted to be dressed up. He used to ask to wear a tie or vest to school, and when we went to Door County in the winter, he wore the same button shirt the whole time because it was dressier than the sweats and fleece that I packed for outside activities. Steve is now almost done with the 2nd quarter of 7th grade. It has gone by incredibly fast! Steve is handling middle school life with a lot of maturity and has stepped up his responsibility level. He had several big end of he quarter projects last week that he worked very hard to complete. One was a power point presentation of a sports store business plan, one was a biography report on Jesse Owens, and his favorite project was a research report and poster on the musician of his choice. He chose the Ramones & earned an A+! (He did not get the others back yet.) Steve continues to love golf, but is more dedicated than ever! Every chance he gets, he wants to hit balls with Casey at the indoor dome or a nearby heated outdoor drive. They also started open gym golf hours at the high school at 6:30 a.m. three days a week. This is a huge accomplishment for Steve who has never, ever been a morning person. When they finish, he just heads over to school because the high and middle school campuses are connected by a field. Sometimes I feel sad that Steve is growing so fast, but sometimes I am excited to see the nice young man he is becoming....