Gabe is 12!

On friday, Gabe turned 12. We went out for pizza, and all the while, I was thinking, "My god he's growing so fast!" I remembered the single happiest day of my life; the day I first held Gabe in my arms. He wasn't Gabe then, of course. I named him Colin Gabriel. It was a little later, that my stepsister held him in her lap and said, "I'm going to call you Gabe." That was it. Now he's only Colin when he's in trouble (he is almost never Colin).
I remembered Saturday, as we were driving around to comic book stores, that I named him wrong. At least, wrong according to my family. My dad took me aside at the '96 family reunion and said. "You spelled it wrong." He was referring to 'Colin,' a name I had thought about for a long time. "The family spelling is a c-o-l-l-i-n," he said. He didn't like my reaction.
"I didn't know there was a family spelling, Dad," I said. "If I'd known Collin was a family name, I would've picked something completely different."
My son is the first boy in all the known generations in my family that doesn't have family names for both given names. I guess I like to be different.
Anyways... after comic-shopping, we had lunch at Taki's in Seattle, then came home and read comics, played with new action figures, and of course, a new Transformer! (Rescue Ratchet).
Today we're going to the movies to see Prince Caspian, then have lunch at Johnny Rocket's (Gabe's favourite). I love birthday weekends!