Birthday Boy

May I just use tonight's blog to give the proper attention to my nephew Tay, also known as (to me and to no one else, actually) DJ Taytie Mac. A few facts about the birthday boy.

* He's officially 7 hours younger than the birth of the Blacksburg Community Band.

* He was named by myself and my cousin Jacob. It was getting close to birth time and they still had no boys' names (although they had Ross, a family name, picked for a middle name). Jacob and I had just seen the movie "Eight Men Out," and one of the kids in the movie was played by Tay Strathairn. We said, "Yeah! Tay! That's cute! And he could formally be Taylor!" And lo and behold, his parents went for it.

* He's a drummin' boy. He drums with sticks, pencils, fingers, eating utensils, his toothbrush, he drums on the table, his lap, my head, his head, the back of the car seat in front of him, the floor, plates, glasses, and, well, drums. He's obsessed.

* He can quote movie lines with me till the cows come home. I like that in a boy.

* He's just a damn nice kid. He's nice to other kids, polite to grown-ups, helps people do things, volunteers his time, and just has a great disposition. I really really wish his parents realized that more, instead of the fact he made a B in Spanish.

* Even as a teenager, he's all elbows and knees. And when he hangs all over me, as he's wont to do, I occasionally have to yell, "ELBOW!" or "KNEE!" to let him know he's stabbing me with one or the other.

* And so DJ Taytie Mac, Taylor Ross, turns 15 today. I swear, he was just born yesterday. He was just a baby yesterday. He was just toddling and learning to speak in an amazing southern accent he doesn't even have now yesterday. He was going to his first day of school yesterday. He was flipping off my shoulders in the swimming pool yesterday. He was ogling and learning to play my musical instruments yesterday. He was so young yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Tay. Next year, you'll be driving us out to birthday dinner. And it'll still just seem like yesterday you were born.