Happy 13th Birthday, Bo!
I can’t believe my butters is 13! A teenager. I’m truly not sure how this happened. He was just a baby a few days ago and now he is taller than I am. It truly is CRAZY how fast it all goes.
When I look at him, I still see this…
I wonder if that ever goes away!
12 was a pretty crazy year with the pandemic, remote school, and so much growing. Bo can eat all of us under the table and easily eats two meals every night at dinner. A recent Culver’s order was two double bacon cheeseburgers with fries and he was not happy that I wouldn’t let him order a milkshake too. We’ve seen lots of growth and maturity this year – with a bit of teenage attitude added too. He loves to read, play video games, and eat… and he doesn’t mind traveling too.
The most exciting trip was right after he turned 12, over Thanksgiving, when we went to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. It was an amazing trip — seeing Neuschwanstein, visiting the Christmas markets, touring the BMW plant in Munich and exploring.
Bo’s full name is Bolander Michael Weitl — and his initials are BMW. We might have started something…
While our travel was definitely less this year, Bo still managed to travel to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Pensacola Beach, and we did a short road trip around Lake Michigan. It was definitely more home time than we were used to with less travel and reduced activities for part of the year.
Bo has continued to enjoy swim and art, even though they look a bit different in 2020. For his birthday, he requested to redecorate his room and bathroom. We had both the bathroom and his room painted gray and he is painting his own art for his room. For his bathroom, he decided he wants to do a snow theme, with navy and white accents.
Swim has been a constant in Bo’s life since he was 6. Swim also changed a great deal this year. Many of Bo’s friends have stopped swimming to move on to other sports and we changed teams at the beginning of the winter season. Changing teams has been a positive and the one meet they’ve been able to have this fall was such a confidence booster for Bo. He had his best time ever in the 50 back and broke 30 seconds, which had been a goal for nearly a year. His new relay team was also so excited and happy with the time they were able to achieve as a team. It was so nice to see Bo’s joy.
When Bo isn’t playing video games (which yes, I’m the mean mom and restrict his daily time!) he is reading. He is currently reading the Wheel of Time series (Mike is reading it with him) and is encouraging Anna to quickly read the new Keeper of the Lost Cities book so he can get his hands on it. I love that he loves to read and I’m so glad that our love of reading rubbed off on him. I know it will end up paying dividends! 
Bo is precocious, smart, funny, and everything I could want from a son. We couldn’t be more proud of who he is becoming and I am so glad that we are here to experience this journey with him!
