Fifteen years

Happy Golden Birthday, Krassimir! Fifteen years old on June 15th!!!

While I didn't take any photos on the actual day, I was outside with him this afternoon with my camera with me.

Just look at him!!! I'm so proud of that boy!! Bit of back story: Krassi really loves to spend time outside. It's been great having Rose here to spend hours out there with him and Reuben every afternoon. Today we were flitting around with all sorts of little projects and back and forth (we met "new" neighbors behind us who moved in last fall...and they're fostering kittens! and I have some girls who are pretty into that...more on that on another day!) and on one of my passes through the house where Krassi was playing, he was asking in his own cryptic way to go outside. So I thought, why not? I had to run back to the neighbors' to check on the girls and Daddy was down on the hillside cutting down dead trees with Reuben, but Krassi's got both an independent spirit AND little ability to move far or fast enough to get himself in trouble that I found him a nice grassy place where I had to walk on my back and forth through the back yard which is also the place where Daddy and Reuben were dumping their loads of brush and logs, and I plopped him down. Gave him two cardboard boxes waiting to be flattened for the recycling and he was one happy boy.

You know what I love most about this photo, though?

HE CLIMBED UP THERE ONTO THAT BENCH ALL BY HIMSELF!!!

One walk through the yard and he was on the grass. The next time, up on the bench. He'd spent some time sitting there while we had a bonfire a few weeks ago, and apparently decided he like it. I love his initiative! It's hard work for him:

(This is what it looks like to adjust position - an incredible effort!) But the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is so totally there. "Oh yeah. I can do this all by myself!"

So we chatted a bit, and I grabbed his boxes for him because they were just out of his reach, and he was good to go again as I continued on my way.

Yep. I'm fifteen years old, and life is good!