Colin would/should be turning 22 tomorrow. We started out celebrating his birthday weekend by going to breakfast at T’s family restaurant.  It’s one of the places he liked to go with us or his friends for a nice breakfast.  Tomorrow we are going to order garbage plates for lunch in his honor. Minus the hot sauce.  We filled up a variety of balloons at Party City and will release them into the sky tomorrow. We also bought a cake at BJ’s. Tonight we are going to watch Anchoman, his all time favorite movie that he was constantly quoting. (And the reason for naming our puppy Baxter) 

It’s a really strange thing planning a birthday celebration for your child that is no longer here.  It’s not something that we’ve ever thought we’d have to do and here we are doing it.  But to not do anything feels strange, also.  We will probably lay low tomorrow and just reminisce and reflect on the 21 years we had with Colin and shed some tears and feel the anguish and pain that he was taken too soon.  Colin, we love you.

Some fun facts about Colin:

When he was 3 he had some testing done and his vocabulary was equivalent to that of a second grader. He was gifted according to his IQ but sometimes naughty because he was bored and needed a challenge. Started reading at 4. We used to read and sing before bed every night when he was little.  

He loved Encyclopedia Brown, Harry Potter, Spiderwick Chronicals and many other  books and series. 

When he was little he loved Little Bear, Franklin and Dragon Tales, Magic School Bus, Ghost Writer Zoom, and Mythbusters. 

He loved to watch The Godfather movies, Rocky, Anchorman and most other comedies. A few months after he passed away, we got a puppy and named him Baxter after the dog in Anchorman.  

He loved  ALL kinds of music. 

He loved to learn.  If he didn’t know the answer to something, he would research and figure it out.  

He had TONS of friends.  I even commented when he was home on spring break last year that he would have a huge wedding party when he got married. 

He appeared serious to people he didn’t know but funny and outgoing with people he was comfortable with.  

He was willing to try any and all types of food.  Some examples are alligator bites, bison burgers and turtle soup.  On vacation at age 4, he once ordered a salmon dinner and at 6 ordered an entire rack of ribs 

Colin loved roller coasters and loved to play roller coaster tycoon.  We really thought he would be an engineer and design roller coasters when he grew up.  

Colin played hockey since he was 6. I cried the first time he was sent to the penalty box.  He tore his labrum in his shoulder senior year and had surgery.  

Colin loved going to Bruster’s on Thursdays for 1/2 price “bring your own banana” banana spilt day. 

Colin played the saxophone in elementary school. He also played guitar for a short time.  He loved Green Day and learned  to play a few songs. 

He has lots of clothes and shoes.  He loved to dress up and also liked to bum around in sweats and comfortable clothes.  

Colin had the best giggle.

Colin was due on March 6 th 1996. Much to our surprise, he decided to arrive 3 weeks early, on Feb 11. He came so quickly that my OB didn’t make it to the hospital in time and the resident delivered him. My Dr figured it was my first baby and he had time to pick up donuts for the nurses on the floor. He was quite surprised when he walked in and could hear a newborn crying. I’m pretty certain that Colin was the residents first solo delivery! Colin was healthy for being early and weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz. He had a full head of jet black hair.  I loved him from the moment that I found out that I was carrying him and loved him even more when I laid eyes on my beautiful baby boy that made me a mom.