Dear Alex

My first born, Alexandre-Alex-Alehandro, has been feeling very left out because I didn't do a "special" post for him around his birthday. Since he is the only one of my children that reads my blog, I have no choice but to show him that I love him just as much as the others and dedicate this post to him.
That's it.









Nah, here is a little bit more for you Alex...
Alexandre was born on October 18th, 1993. That's a whole different century from my other kids, kinda crazy huh! I was barely 21 when he came along. I looked even younger. I was attending Phoenix College at the time and I looked 16. Since I was retraining water, I had taken my wedding band off and looked like a poor little single girl who got knocked up! I had a very uneventful 9 months. I had very short labor for a first-born and was too dumb to get an epidural. I thus gave birth to a healthy 9lbs 4oz baby boy with the help of breathing (what a joke), relaxation (good one) and a bit of Demerol (to take the edge off, my b...t). I stayed at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix (we lived in Maryvale at the time, in the west ghetto) for 24 hours , and then they sent me home, without instructions on how to take care of a baby when your mom lives in another country and you're barely 21! I don't think I slept at all (well, it feels like for 15 years now) because even when he fell asleep in his wind-up swing, I was too afraid to close my eyes and rest. He was such a beautiful baby, so big and adorable, so perfect! I was so amazed at what I had done, how such a miracle was possible. I was exhausted but happy. I've said many time that Alex saved me. I had move to the US 1 1/2 year prior to that, and I was very much homesick, very unhappy (although still madly in love with Reed, thus I stayed). I don't know if I would have "endured" if I didn't have Alex, I think I would have gone home, Reed would have followed me, of course, but then life would have been different. He was my little buddy and made me forget about ME!
We had 7 years with just him and us, a spoiled only-child. Very smart, very much aware of his intellectual abilities and very much running the show (still today). I have a lot of complicity with Alex, I truly enjoy hanging out with him (and I know he'll read this, but it's the truth), especially in the last months. He's growing, physically, of course, but more mentally. He's a typical teenager. How great it was to be like that, hang out with friends, talk about girls (well, it was boys for me, of course), joke, ROFLOL, be careless, clueless, haaaaa, it was fun ;) He has a good group of friends around him, they help each other stay in the straight and very narrow path that leads to adulthood. Time is flying by, and I know that in less than 4 years, he'll probably leave my nest, to conquer the world. I hope I will have given him strong wings to fly high above temptations, but freely where the wind takes him, and strong legs to land steadily and firmly on the ground when necessary.