He's 9.

Hard to believe that on June 17, 2002 Steph and I had no children, we lived in our brand new house on the west side of Sioux Falls, and I was still working in TV.  Then that afternoon it all changed.  Maxim Thomas was born.

If you remember the birth of your first child as well as I do, the only thing you remember is confusion.  I was 29 when Maxim was born, but still a kid in a lot of ways...heck, I'm still AM a kid.  It is at that instant that you realize your life is different, and in an instant your priorities change.

Maxim changed my life, and it is safe to say he will change the life of most everyone that he is around.  Steph and I were always amazed at the care, love and heart that he has for people, and now that he is older and away from us more, we get unsolicited reports back about how good of a kid he is, and how nice he is.

He has a super gentle spirit, and he can make my day brighter with his smile and hug.  Well, he is 9 now and to celebrate he wanted a week of birthday parties, we negotiated down to just 2 parties.  Last night was the first with our family and a few people who might as well be family.  I think the party broke up at 11:30 p.m. while Steph took 30 minutes to cleaned up, he put together a 250 Star Wars lego.  We think it might be a record.  Then to cap off the night the birthday boy and I sat on the couch and watched X-Men: Wolverine until about 1:30 A.M. when I fell asleep...he was wide awake.

He slept in his favorite spot on the couch with the SDSU Jackrabbits blanket.