Meet My Firstborn

My oldest child will go by the name 'Firstborn' in blogland, 1) because he is, 2) because he exhibits all the typical firstborn tendencies in a big way, and 3) because when I asked him what he wanted his blog nickname to be, he said "oobally scoobally".

Firstborn is ten years and ten months old. He has a strong sense of justice and leadership, particularly when it comes to his siblings. I'm pretty sure he thinks the family pecking order is {Dad, Mom and him}, and {the two kids}. I am sorry to say that I have unintentionally passed down my type-A personality to him and even sorrier that he's worse now at 10 than I am at 37. The road ahead is a hard one, my son, should you choose to continue on this path.

Of course, there are advantages. He is a great student. Homeschooling him was easy; he more or less taught himself. He has the neatest handwriting anyone has ever seen; all his teachers say so. He is an amazing artist, a gifted writer, and he excels at everything he does. Or, I should say, everything he thinks is worth doing, which does not include chores.

He is adventurous and enthusiastic and likes to try new things. Here he is last year at the 2007 Cub Scout Pinewood Derby:


Here he is before a baseball game in 2007. We signed him up without his knowledge.


Here he is house hunting with us earlier this year.


Here he is showing off his artwork at the end-of-year school art fair.


Can't you just feel the excitement? Okay, so I was being facetious. He is reluctant to try new things because he's afraid he'll look silly. He gets that from me. Again, I am sorry, Firstborn. He is resistant to change, probably because he's had a lot of it in his lifetime. He has lived in nine houses in his short life (more on that in future posts). If I hadn't homeschooled him K-2, he would have gone to five different schools in his academic career so far.

If he takes too much responsibility on himself, it's because, as the firstborn, a lot has been expected of him. It's sad, but that's how it is with firstborns. Really, though, Firstborn is funny, loves his immediate and extended family, and gets along with almost everybody. We like to remember him like this:

2001