All of my oldest's, let's refer to him just as D, birthday parties are over, and he is completely and utterly 18. The family party, the afterschool surprise party, and now an overnight with his closest friends. I think he feels thoroughly celebrated.

It's interesting that just last week someone mentioned to me what an anticlimactic birthday turning 18 is. Now this person is a mom of young kids, so I tried to offer the bigness of this birthday from my perspective. D has a host of medical issues so I have spent a lot of time signing a variety of forms for him over the years, now he will do all the signing. He can officially sign himself in and out at school, buy a lottery ticket, and make as adult choices as he wants. He is legally an adult, and although he can choose to let his life remain mostly as it is, he doesn't have to. The world of choice opens in a much bigger way at 18.

Okay, some people remind me that D can now buy cigarettes, but that seems highly unlikely. He had open heart surgery at age 17 months, his pedicatric cardiologist suggested he not even have a role model who smokes, and both my parents died rather young due to smoking-related diseases. We are definitely not fans of cigarettes in our house, so this part of turning 18 feels rather nonexistent for D. Yeah!