Yesterday...

My oldest son will turn 18 years old tomorrow.

I'm not sure how that happened. It doesn't seem right. He can't possibly be that old.

You see, just yesterday, we brought him home from the hospital. His mom delivered him five weeks early. He had to stay there three days. He's fine now. He was all wrapped up in those little blankets the hospital is required by federal law to hand out. You know the one's I'm talking about. The white ones, with the pink and blue stripes on them. You brought your kids home in the same ones.

Yesterday, I changed his diaper for the first and only time. I know, I'm a big jerk. I had poop everywhere. On the ceiling, on the fan, on me. Not sure how that happened. Whoever said that changing a diaper is a bonding experience was out of their mind.

I bought him his first drum set for Christmas yesterday. It's just a toy kit, of course, but I think it was his favorite present. He's been playing them all morning.

Yesterday, we made a tape singing "Monkey Jumping on the Bed" to play for his little brother. His little brother is in the hospital. Has been now for several weeks. The little guy was born way too early, but big brother loves his little brother and can't wait for him to come home. He wanted to make a tape so his little brother could listen to it and maybe get better quicker. "Itsy Bitsy Spider" is on the tape as well.

Yesterday, we wrestled on the bed together. We like to wrestle on the bed. We do it all the time. The rule is, every time he knocks me out, he has to kiss me on the cheek to wake me up. He kisses me on the cheek a lot. He doesn't know it, but he never really knocks me out. I just like getting kisses on the cheek.

Just yesterday, he started Kindergarten. I didn't think his Mom was going to keep it together, but she did better than me. He doesn't know this, but I cried. I was OK -- really -- until he started crying as we left. That was about all I could take. Funny, but I seem to cry a lot more now that I have kids.

Yesterday, he was holding my hand and smiling from ear to ear. We'd just got off the church bus on a youth church trip and I'd been silly around all his friends on the bus. All his friends were laughing, and he really likes it when I'm silly. He likes thinking that his friends think I'm the cool Dad.

I coached his first baseball game yesterday. He loves to pitch. He's a natural. He could throw a ball from the day he could pick one up. He also plays 3rd base. That's where his favorite player, Aaron Boone, plays for the Reds. He loves the Reds. Wonder how that happened? Why, just yesterday, I was holding him in my arms in the yellow seats at Riverfront Stadium when Aaron Boone hit a walk-off home run to win the game. We bounced up and down together as the ball landed just a few rows from us.

In fact, yesterday, he got to meet Aaron at RedsFest. We go to the Reds fan festival every year. We stood in line to meet Aaron, and when we got to him, Aaron just scooped him up in his arms like he was his own, and Mom took their picture together. It's a great picture. But he has lots of pictures with Reds players.

You know what else was cool? Yesterday he went with his baseball team to the George Foster baseball camp, and got to work with the 1977 National League MVP himself. He and all his buddies got their picture with big George and got to play baseball with the man. Most boys his age don't know who George Foster is, but my son took pride in telling them all about him.

Yesterday, we played a song together at church. He actually helped me write it. It's a Christmas song, and I know he's not very old, but he really helped with the lyrics and had some solid suggestions about the song. We practiced it and sang it at church. Everybody seemed to really like it. His mom was proud. I think he might have the makings of a good musician.

I had a long day yesterday. I was the substitute teacher for his 6th grade class. A lot of his baseball buddies are in the class with him. I sorta abandoned the outline the teacher left for me, and instead, we played a game where I would quote a line from a movie, and they would have to guess the name of the movie. He says its the most fun he ever had a with a substitute teacher.

Yesterday was his 12th birthday, and he celebrated by pitching his traveling team to a victory in their first game of the year. Complete game. What a great time. I like being his coach very much, and I just had to give him the start, what with it being his birthday and all.

He started junior high school yesterday. Jr. High! Where does the time go? I thought he'd be a little upset with us moving him to a different school away from all his friends. But he loves it. Didn't bat an eye. He says he really likes it, and there's only two other boys in his whole class. He thinks that's kinda cool.

Yesterday we got back from Washington DC. His 7th grade class took a field trip there. And I was lucky enough to be one of the chaperons. We had a blast, him and me and his buddies. He says I was the coolest Dad on the trip. He still likes his friends thinking I'm cool.

We met his first girlfriend yesterday. She's a cutie.

And then, yesterday, we just got back from a vacation with his girlfriend's family. We all really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was great in Hilton Head. It was the first time we'd ever been there. In the pool one day, he was protecting his girl. I would pretend to try to get her, and he'd fight me off. Stayed between me and her the whole time. And she clung to him pretty close. We also took a boat ride to look for dolphins. It was pretty cute watching him and her together, giggling, just digging be kids at that moment, at that time. Got a great picture of the two of them laughing together on the boat. Pretty special.

I baptized him yesterday. I don't think I can tell you about it though. Not without crying.

My boy became a teenager yesterday. All he wanted for his 13th birthday was to go to the Reds Opening Day. So that's what we did. Unfortunately, the weather was kinda nasty yesterday, and even though they got the game in, the Reds lost 2-4. But he didn't care. He just liked being there, just me and him. We had a great time.

He's a good drummer, my boy. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of playing worship at church with him playing drums right beside me. He's worked his way up from just playing bongos and percussion on Wednesday nights. Now he's on the kit, in the big service on Sunday mornings. And he loves it. I love it too.

Yesterday, he started high school. I can't believe it. My boy's in high school. He's been playing ball with the school baseball team all summer, and he was really looking forward to getting started. He seems to really like it. In fact, yesterday, he came home from school and told me and his mom how he really looks forward to going to school everyday. Imagine, a teenage boy enjoying school.

Yesterday, the girl broke up with him. It's his first break up. I wonder how he'll take it. My heart hurts for them both.

I had a bad vertigo attack yesterday. I tried to make it all the way home, but I couldn't. So he drove me the rest of the way home. Even though he's only had his permit a couple of months, and he's only driven the big 15-passenger van a few times, and we were on the side of I-465, he hopped in the seat and drove me home like a pro. We even had to stop on the side of the road a couple of times for me to throw up. No worries. Like he's been doing it for years.

We took him yesterday to buy his first car. Are you kidding me? I think he got what a wanted. A pretty cool Durango. We got a good deal on it. And it's big enough he can carry his drums around. Maybe now, he'll get more excited about driving.

Yesterday, he started his first game of his Junior year at first base. He's the starter there this year. He's spent the last two years backing up the previous starter, and now its his turn. We're pretty excited about this year.

We took him to visit the college he wants to go to yesterday. Middle Tennessee State. It's the only place he's applied to. He wants to study Audio Engineering. That's pretty cool. Plus, there's a Red Lobster nearby, so he can get all the Cheddar Bay biscuits he wants.

Yesterday was the first day of his Senior year. Wasn't it just yesterday he started Kindergarten?

This isn't a story that's unique to us. Billions of parents since Old Testament times could tell this same story. Long before we got here, they could tell us what yesterday was all about. Some of you right now know what I'm talking about. You know what yesterday feels like. We have dear friends who've been robbed of some of their yesterdays, and so they have less of them to remember than I do, but they're no less special to them. Even more special, in some ways.

All that's left now are tomorrows. And I wonder what kind of yesterdays all those tomorrows will become. And I look forward very much to knowing what happened yesterday.

But I want to share one more.

Yesterday he was just seven years old. I was at the hospital all day with my wife. She has a brain tumor, and was in surgery all day. Literally, all day. I was tired -- physically, but mostly, emotionally. Friends and family had been by all day to check in on us. My ministers had been there to pray with me. Even the wife's Step-Dad's mom came by. She's so sweet.

But MeMe and Grandpa got him from school and took him to his baseball game. And then they brought him to the hospital to see us. His mom wasn't out of surgery yet. But he won his game and had a smile on his face. He was still wearing his baseball uniform.

So he crawled up on my lap, put his arms around my neck, and let me cry on his shoulder. He held me, and comforted me, mature way beyond his years, and told me it would all be OK. Turns out, he was right.

Yesterday, he was seven years old.

Tomorrow, he'll turn 18.