Ross Turns 28

Ross, our youngest son, turned 28 on May 25. We celebrated his birthday a day early since we were having the Reitz family reunion here on his actual birthday. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, and he asked for strawberry shortcake, and he wanted the actual old-fashioned shortcake, so out came the Betty Crocker cookbook and that's what he got! The strawberries were a combination of fresh and frozen, since the PA strawberries are not ripe yet, and the fresh ones from California are maybe not as flavorful as I would like.

He shared his birthday celebration with several of the Reitz cousins who came to play music on the porch that evening. We had lots of fun, and the neighbors even called us the next morning to say that they enjoyed hearing our music!

Ross also got sung to the next day, along with his second cousin, Abby, who turned 24.

Ken and Todd went together and got Ross some kind of tool set, and me, as his mom, got him new T shirts and his favorite candies, peanut M&M's and caramel creams.

I actually downloaded 5 pictures to my blog, and so far I have managed to delete two of them when I tried to space them out. I WILL get the hang of putting pictures on my blog someday. All it takes is practice, right?

Anyways, Ross is our fourth child, and our grand finale. He was born at 6 something in the morning on May 25, which was a Monday in 1981 and also Memorial Day. I remember commenting to a nurse later that morning that it looked like a beautiful day outside, and she said, "Yes, it is a beautiful day to be born!"

Ross joined Roy, 8, Todd, 5, and Jill, about 23 months. What a busy time I had that summer taking care of our family! I don't remember a lot about it except that I felt quite overwhelmed with it all. In August, Roy and Todd would have gone to third and first grade, so likely that relieved my stress somewhat.

I remember thinking that I was not being fair to my baby because I felt I was not devoting the time to him that he deserved. A few years later, Jill went to kindergarten, and then Ross had my exclusive attention during the day until he went to school two years later. When he was finishing tenth grade, Jill got married, and then he was home with us by himself until he got his own apartment in Brookville when he was 21. That lasted for another five years, and he decided to go to Penn State DuBois, and he moved back with us. He has gotten plenty of mothering, and probably more than he ever thought he needed! But he sure didn't get as much in his first months as I would have liked.

He just finished up his second year at Penn State DuBois with his third 4.0. He plans to go to State College in the fall and take his final two years there where he can get more specialized courses in his major of finance. We wish him well and are proud to call him our son!