17!

Well somehow that little two year old with the Wiggles party hats on is 17 years old now. He's doing great in school (all A's for the first quarter of junior year, taking a really heavy course load) but still doesn't have to work too terribly hard to do that. Reed still grumbles about going to school and doesn't enjoy it other than it means he gets to hang out with friends. I don't think he's got any classes or teachers this year that he really enjoys, which is unfortunate – a great teacher can make such a difference.

Reed continued his birthday tradition of a movie outing with friends, this time to see the new Stephen King movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. They had a good time, I'm sure ate too much, and spent a fortune (that place is expensive!). His choice of invitees changed a little this year, it looks like he's grown apart from a couple of very longtime friends, which makes me sad but is probably just the normal course of growing up. He continues to mostly hang out with friends virtually, but he occasionally ventures out with them IRL, like for the Cox Farms Fields of Fear, or a Spiderman movie marathon.

Reed still struggles with a bit of social anxiety, so we thought it was probably time to get some outside help so he can build up those skills and be ready to go away to college if that's what he chooses to do. So he's been going to therapy since just before school started. It's a weird dynamic for us, because we've not been part of it at all – we're just the transportation. Which is, I'm sure, how it should be, but it just leaves us wondering. His therapist, Michelle, tells us that he always does the homework she assigns him, and he continues to want to go, so we know it must be useful for him, and we carry on.

Reed still hasn't ever turned into the kind of teenager who sleeps til noon, unlike his mother, for sure.