It's official

Björn is now the tallest in the family! Today is his 15th birthday and we did the traditional measuring thing straight after the waking-him-up-with-cake thing. He is now 172.5cm tall - 1/2cm taller than his Dad. Wahey! This picture was taken at the Eastern restaurant we visited today for lunch.

He began his GCSEs in September, which will take him the next two years, whereafter he will do 6th form (A levels). He is likely to take a gap year before heading to university, although that isn't necessarily a given. We will have to see what options are available. We would like him to be able to go and spend a year abroad, working in an environment that will challenge him physically before he knuckles down to study again.

He is an intelligent, pleasant-natured boy, confident to the point of arrogance sometimes, but we guess life will teach him balance. He wants to study forensics at university one day, and, while I think he'd be bored stiff by chemistry, I think he would love ballistics.

He has a very nice physique and is inordinately proud of his "8-pack". His part time job at the greengrocery certainly helps with that - he spends a lot of time lifting and carrying. He is still doing pretty well at sport and is keen to try his hand at decathlon - I think he ought to be quite good at it, he has a good balance of tack and field skills. We have to make enquiries as to what age that starts and where he can get training - school athletics being somewhat limited.

His face has changed quite dramatically over the past two years, and his dear little button has been transformed into a more - ahem! - generously proportioned Norton nose. His jaw has also lengthened significantly. As you can see, he is wearing his hair a little on the long side - it remains to be seen how long he can put up with it, though - he gets irritated with hair in his face.

He is no longer playing the guitar, and is looking to sell his kit. He has had several girlfriends, none of whom have lasted more than a couple of weeks (I think it will take him a while to find someone to replace Chrissy - what is it about one's first love?), but is currently single. That's not to say that he isn't usually to be found in the centre of a knot of girls, though!

His teachers are, on the whole, very pleased with him. His food technology (cookery) teacher attends our church. In fact she teaches both boys, and she came over today to tell me how lovely they are to teach. That's the sort of thing parents like to hear. Of course, it's also very nice that they bring home all the results of their efforts, too. Mmmm. Last week there was a chicken and mushroom pie and, the week before that, a cheesy potato bake. Björn enjoys cooking and isn't bad at it. The trouble is that at home he gets distracted by TV, computer, PS2, etc., and tends to forget to keep an eye on the stove. At school, he can stay focused on the task at hand. When he disciplines himself, he makes some pretty decent meals.

Recently, for food tech, they had to keep a food diary for 24 hours, and Björn was judged the healthiest eater in the class. Since he is the least healthy eater in the family and, on the day in question, he had a bag of crisps and a bag of sweets (out of the ordinary for him), one wonders about the dietary habits of the rest of the class. I guess we shouldn't, though - the average Brit's poor eating habits have been big news for the past couple of years, and I find myself regularly sitting with my mouth open watching people who have to be taught what the different vegetables are called (I kid you not: "Er, is it a cabbage?).

We expect that, after two years of rapid growth, Björn should slow down a bit for a couple of years, with another spurt at 17-18. Of course, that's the average - it remains to be seen if he follows typical form.

He spends his life on msn, these days, and is a typical digital native, taking full advantage of always-on connectivity.

And that's our boy in a nutshell.