“He’s a real banana head,” the doctor who delivered you pronounced right after your birth. You looked more like a “prune” with all those wrinkles; kinda like an aging Dwight Eisenhower or a Winston Churchill, but with a lot more wrinkles.
Today, March 2, 2010, your 18th birthday, you blossomed into a handsome young man, strong of mind and body with a heart as big as the place in which you came from, Cleveland, Ohio.
I remember having to change you, fumbling around, taking you from your birth mother, Angie, in the middle of the night, rocking you, burping you and patting your back. The whole time forgetting to brush my teeth creating such a “yucky” feeling all day.
I nearly broke my arm some months later when I forgot to secure you in a portable “chair” I placed on the bay window-sill. You wriggled out and started to fall to the hard floor below when I dove, hit the dining room floor with my elbow and cushioned your blow in my arms. What a catch. And what an injury. Still feel the pain on days it rains.
First day in school a photographer from our local newspaper captured you in a picture that spread across five of the six columns of the front page. A reporter was doing a story on a classmate who just happened to be standing in line behind you as you were following your first grade teacher into Conshohocken Elementary School. That picture is now framed and displayed in the dining room, not far from the spot I “caught” you some years earlier.
The living room offers visitors a look at a 14-year-old Nicholas hugging his “birth mother,” meeting her for the first time since she permitted us to raise you in March of 1992. You are all smiles, and look comfortable, and seem to be as well-adjusted as a banana mixed with a scoop of ice cream in a banana split.
You became one of a hundred in the photo showing you with other members of Concert Chorus for Montgomery County, displaying your singing talents in Middle School and High School. But, you wanted to become a “rock star,” grew your hair long, learned to play a guitar and formed a band with two girls and two guys with you as a lead singer. Can’t forget the holes in the knee of the jeans you all seem to be wearing in the picture I took.
At 16, you flashed your best smile for a driver’s license, and were lucky to avoid having to pose for a police “mug shot” following the series of car accidents and minor run-ins with the local authorities. I asked myself, why is he following in my footsteps? I found it hard to stay out of trouble, too. And kinda knew it was part of the growing process, the “risk-taking,” the testing of life boundaries at a certain age.
Today, you officially become a man. At least in the eyes of the law.
I love you, and want you to know that you’ll always be my favorite son, What’s that? You say that you’re my only son?
Happy birthday, Nicholas. Here’s dad, proudly smiling at you kid!
Contoveros 
[…] a little better prepared for the next emergency the Universe sends me. I’ll get our favorite son Nicholas — who learned the Heimlich maneuver — to deal with […]
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This is one of my favorites!
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This is a heart warming tribute to your son Michael. Thank you for sharing it with us. 🙂
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This is SOOOOO DEAR! Happy Birthday Nicholas!!!! What a grand time You’re at! And Thank You for sharing this, Michael. Cheers and Namaste. 🙂
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Thanks for the birthday wishes.
But, now I want my dad to write about the Rooster who will be 1 yr old March 12, 2010.
Nick.
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What a tribute! Happy Birthday Nicholas! I know you’re probably as awesome as your dad says. Know why? ‘Cause the best people are born in or around the beginning of March. (My birthday was yesterday, is how I know). *grinning*
Cheers!
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thank you so much for the birthday wishes…and i am more awesome than my father says..haha its nice to hear that im not the only one with a birthday in early march…so happy birthday to you as well!
from Nick on dad’s site
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Parenting is one of the best journeys in life, isn’t it?
Happy Birthday Nicholas!
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thank you so much for the birthday wishes!
from Nick on dad’s site
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*smile*!
To Nicholas:
Happy birthday!!!!!!! – you will make a great man, I just know it!
I would say ‘make your Dad proud’ but the real thing to remember is to act in a way that you will be proud of yourself – your Father’s pride will be a ‘given’ (Dad’s are good that way.)
Being able to have something you feel you can always tell a Mother is not a bad idea either…
(Just sayin’)
I was about to give you some advice about going out to party for your birthday until I remembered that – in the States – you are not legal to drink when we are here in Canada.
So – even IF you won’t be going to the bar for another couple years – hopefully you can a least have share a beer with your Dad and reflect on the whole ‘man’ thing *smile*
All the best to you Mr. Nicholas!
M.L.
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i laughed at when you said i should go to the bar…i would love to if i was old enough here…my father just told me maybe we can share some Vino…(if you dont know what that is it is red wine) but if you read any of his blogs about going to greece he might have left out the fact that the drinking age there is 16…and when i was there i had my first beer it was a heineken…it was a little bitter but not bad…but thank you for the birthday wishes! 🙂
from Nick on dad’s site
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