Happy Birthday Nate!

Nate is eleven today. Wow! I have an eleven year old son. Kinda makes my wife seem old. I don't seem old enough to be married to a woman old enough to have an eleven year old. Enough about me. Here are some things you might not know about Nate:

1. Nate created the rather catchy term "Baby Fighter" and the game "Stink Rat"
2. Nate belongs to an elite club of people who have done flips off of our swing-set in the back yard (along with Kevin, Gabe and myself)
3. Nate has the same annoying genetic gift that my brother-in-law Kevin has with video games. He picks them up quickly and before you know it can smoke me at any game. Not to mention he plays them a lot.
4. If God gave me the choice of who my son would be and every kid in the world were lined up, I would pick Nate.
5. Nate is at the age where he thinks the words "balls" and "nuts" are very, very funny.
6. When Nate was little and we would wrestle, I tried to teach him the parameters around the rare case it's every okay to hit a guy in the junk in a fight. That one took me a while to refine. We ended up clarifying with this, "It's never okay to hit someone in the junk, unless it's Ken Buck."
7. Even thought Nate was cheering the Giants on all throughout the playoffs, he wants the Patriots to win.
8. Nate is very good at asking questions. He comes up with these fantastic hypothetical situations. Questions like, "If you could have the ability of any athlete, who it would be?"
9. Nate has a passion for music. Mostly heavier stuff right now, but he has very diverse tastes that include groups like Rush and Johnny Cash.
10. Much like my brother Dan, Nate has the first child quality of believing that he is the parent of his younger two sisters. I'll often hear him correcting his sisters or reminding them of rules around the house. He balances that by being a great big brother most of the time who is very protective of his sisters.
11. Our cats seem to like Nate the most. Contrary to what my brother Jon thinks, I like my cats the least.... Except for my secret love of Cat Fancy magazine, of course.