Happy Birthday, Taylor!

7:28am

Today is Taylor's 21st birthday.

For 21 years, Taylor has been a source of joy and on occasion one of aggravation. We have more "Taylor stories" than we are entitled to. I sometimes think about the parents of other children and wonder just how boring their house may be. I almost feel sorry for them. Between Taylor and his sister, Lauren, there is truly never a dull moment around this house.

Taylor is the son that at 3 years old, pulled over a 9' Christmas Tree, then plopped on the sofa with his legs crossed at the knee and faked watching television. When I ran in and yelled "WHAT HAPPENED?" he looked at the tree, looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said "It fall all by itself". Right. Scam Artist already.

Taylor was the kid next door that at 5 or so years old, climbed onto the roof. Our then next door neighbor, Joel Wilcockson, came over and said "Al, Taylor's on the roof with his pants pulled down". Most parents would freak. I just looked for my shoes and went to fetch the ladder. Just another day around the Smith house.

When Taylor was 11, we drove cross country from California to Ohio, taking in Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Route 66 and everything else we could see over the 2,000 mile trip. When Lauren began to laugh hysterically in the backseat, I adjusted the mirror to see what was so funny, and there was Taylor with his naked butt against the window, mooning cars as we passed them on Interstate 40. Typical Taylor.

I could do a whole Blog on just the adventures of Taylor that I know about. He is something else.

For most people, the 21st birthday is more ceremonial these days than it is important. The 18th birthday is the one where children become adults, so that's the true big deal.

For us, every birthday is now important. Really important. There were times in March that I wondered if Taylor would make it to this day, and if he did I wondered if he would even be aware that it was his birthday. As we all know, those worries are behind us.

There are two days a year we will now celebrate as birthdays for Taylor. One is September 5th. The other is March 11th, the day he opened his eyes for the first time after the accident. It was then that we really began to feel that we would get him back.

Taylor has never been into us making big deals of things, including birthdays. Had he known in advance about our plans for him on the day he came home from rehab, he would have tried to talk us out of doing it. He's just never been big on public recognition.

Once Taylor had the Trach removed in rehab, he often talked about going to dinner at Shogun's, a Japanese steakhouse in Lakeland that's one of his favorites. Now, it's probably the only restaraunt in the county he hasn't eaten at yet. He's had plenty of offers, but he said he wanted to save the first time for something special. He's decided tonight is the night. So, my mother and sister will meet Taylor's mother, sister and myself there for dinner tonight. Other diners are unlikely to know we'll be celebrating what is likely to be the most special birthday we will likely ever have with Taylor. It really gives the expression ".......live to see your next birthday" new meaning. In years past, it was usually used in a sentence like "Taylor, if you want to live to see your next birthday......" which was always some lame threat used to try to get him to do something, or not do something. That expression isn't really funny anymore, and not one that we'll ever use again.

So, on this 21st birthday of Taylor, we thank God that Taylor was given a second chance at life and we were given a second chance to share it with him.

Happy birthday, Taylor. We love you.