Will Smith celebrates son Jaden Smith's 17th birthday

LOS ANGELES, July 9 (UPI) -- Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith celebrated son Jaden's 17th birthday Wednesday.

The 46-year-old actor and 43-year-old actress marked the occasion by sharing a throwback photo of their eldest child and a loving post on Facebook.

"Jaden is 17 years old today. I'm just glad he stopped eating paste!" Will Smith captioned a picture of a young Jaden Smith sitting in a birdcage.

"It was on this day a tremendous gift was delivered to me," Jada Pinkett Smith wrote. "A baby boy, whose existence reflected back to me all the passion, curiosity, love and beauty that only a child could collect from the deepest recesses of his mother's secret heart and breath it into the world."

"You have made the beauty I could only feel within myself... absolutely tangible," she shared. "You were not only born from my body... but born from my soul. You are a light of my heart and a light from my deepest wishes. I am so grateful for you...."

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith met when the actress auditioned for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1994, and married in 1997. The couple welcomed Jaden Smith in 1998, and daughter Willow followed in 2000. The actor is also father to Trey Smith by first wife Sheree Zampino.

Jaden Smith starred in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth with Will Smith, and praised his dad in new single "Offering." The teenager is known for posting odd thoughts on Twitter, and recently explained why he wore a Batman suit to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's wedding.