Okay, so it’s not really my birthday.  Actually it’s my son’s 25th birthday but I’ve always felt like our children’s birthdays are our birthdays too.  After all, it is the day that we moms gave birth, so why shouldn’t we get to celebrate too!  I’m not so sure that my son would agree that we share his special day.

We have a crazy little birthday tradition for him that we’ve done since he was 4 years old.  Every morning of his birthday we play his own little birthday tape which is an old cassette tape we bought that plays a little Space Man birthday song with his name inserted into the song.  It starts off with “Hey Ryan, it’s your birthday” and goes into this whole scenerio about Ryan blasting off into space for his birthday.

He thinks I’m a little nuts for dragging that tape out and playing it every year, but if I didn’t do it I’m sure he’d miss it.  Since he lives out of town I’ve had to play it over the phone the past few years.  Despite the silliness of it all, I just know he’d miss it if I didn’t call and play it for him again today…so come 5:30 p.m. when he sees my number on the caller ID he’ll know what’s coming.  Thank goodness we still have an old cassette player to use.  Some day I may have to get this thing transferred to whatever form of media is the newest thing.

So now that I’ve got the music covered my biggest problem is the gift.  I just hate sending money every year, but the older they get the harder it is to think of good birthday gifts for our kids.  At Christmas I made a valid attempt to buy him clothes, but those all ended up being returned.

He has just about every form of technology there is so nothing I can think of in that department that he’s lacking.  Money just seems so impersonal but I can’t come up with anything else.

Birthday gift ideas for a 25 year old “kid” would be much appreciated.  If you have a simple solution or clever thought, please put it in the comments.  He’s coming down next weekend to celebrate with us (my daughter’s birthday is the following week so we’ve turned their birthday’s into one big celebration), so I’ve got a week to “Get It Done” .

Any ideas would be much appreciated.  I’m at a loss.