Seipert Family Adventures: February 2008

Valentine weekend R surprised me by booking us a night at the Neemrana Fort Palace in Rajasthan. Its only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Delhi, but took us over 3 hours because of horrendous traffic! (We saw a motorcycle crash on the way, ouch!)

I heard really great things about Neemrana but I didn't realize just how fantastic it was until we got there. The fort was built before Columbus discovered America. It remained abandoned for many years until a company bought it and turned it into a hotel.

The rooms are all completely different and the grounds are, for lack of a better word, picturesque. A great place to feel like you are "getting away" without actually leaving the country!

Neemrana is hard to describe so I will let the pictures say it for me. Some of the pictures are of things we saw on our way down to the hotel! Be sure and wait for the one of the guy carrying a huge mirror on a motorcycle, its priceless!

A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. Grandma & Grandpa S came to visit for a couple of weeks from Germany. We went to Agra and visited the Taj, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.....

Oh yeah, and big T turned 16!!

I thought that once Big T turned 16 I would feel differently as a mother, but ya know, it doesn't feel much different to be a mother of a 16 year old than it did a 15 year old. But the idea of him starting to date (it is our rule that they be at least 16) is kinda scary. All of the sudden it feels like the forbidden fruit is no longer forbidden. For 16 years we have preached no dating, no kissing, no holding hands, girls have "cooties", all the important anti-dating propaganda, and in one magic moment, before the last off-tune note of Happy Birthday drifted off into silence, dating became legal.

Luckily, for me, big T is still a bit shy when it comes to girls and is taking his time wading into the merky waters of the dating pool. This I am all too grateful for. I am also appreciative that Halo, Ghost Recon and goofing around with his friends still seems to hold the majority of his affections, and fortunately, that did not magically change the moment he became 'of-age'. But all too soon I know they will be replaced with a pretty face. I'm not sure I am prepared for that day.

I don't kid myself by thinking I am, or ever was my sons "first-love", that is way too Hollywood. But I have to admit it is a very romantic notion, and at the risk of sounding like a bad cliche, I must share a few feelings;

I can remember clearly the day I first held him in my arms. The feelings and emotions that welled up inside me, at that moment were so incredibly powerful, that I thought my heart might actually burst right out of my chest. The feelings were so overwhelming all I could do was sit and sobb.

I felt as if I were experiencing life for the first time. As if I too was just re-born. Everything was different now. I had never felt such joy, and in turn, saddness took on a whole new meaning as well. It was a moment like no other, incapable of description.

How I long to hold that baby once more...

Enough nostalgia, if I held him in my arms now I would be crushed!

We were at a loss as to what to do for him for his birthday because he doesn't get the normal perks of turning sixeteen in the states. Namely, getting a drivers license and all that entails. I knew we couldn't give him anything that would make up for the fact that he couldn't drive, but I wanted it to be memorable. So, I thought back to my own 16th birthday and decided to throw him a surprise party! Okay, maybe not the best idea, but parents are supposed to be lame, right!

We booked a room at ACSA and had them decorate and cater finger foods. I invited his friends and made them promise not to say anything and I made another AMAZING cake! I didn't think anything could beat that soccer-if-ic cake I made for Mishy but this was pretty impressive!

We told him we were taking him to dinner for his birthday and as we walked up through the ACSA building we asked him to go look for Mo in the party room because she was hanging out there with some friends. We followed him down the hall and as he started to open the door he saw the Happy Birthday sign and swiftly turned around to leave. It was at that moment that I realized how lame the surprise party idea was! We forced him into the room and he was completely taken off guard. I could tell he felt very embarrassed and awkward.

(What mother's won't do to embarrass their children!) After a while when the focus was off him he seemed to settle down and enjoy the party. We ate, chatted and listened to music. Little T and his friend favored us with a little "brake-dancing" as well.

Not the kind of 16th birthday party Big T probably imagined, but memorable all the same! We eventually left him and his friends at ACSA to bowl (T wants me to tell you that he dominated at bowling) and gave them their space to hang-out!