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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Happy Birthday
9:58 AM | 
Posted by
Christine
Today is my son's thirteenth birthday.
Does it sound like a cliché if I admit that the time has flown by more quickly than I can fathom?
Yesterday, Mark and I took A and his best friend down to US Cellular Field to see the Crosstown Classic - Cubs vs. Sox in all of their collective glory. Halfway through the fifth inning, the boys wandered off to get something to eat, and after about 15 minutes, I was starting to worry. What if they were lost? What if someone robbed them, beat them, took them? What if....?
Mark laughed at me, and pointed out that we hadn't told them when to be back. "They're two teenage boys at the ballpark. Let them be."
Sure enough, they came back, having eaten a couple of hot dogs and explored half of the park. They were glowing - and enjoying a perfect day.
In my mind, they are still little boys. Look at these faces...
They stand on the verge of changing into men, and yet when I look at them, I still see the innocence of childhood. I remember taking A to the blueberry farm, and watching him set aside his little basket to eat as many blueberries as he could directly off of the bushes. I recall him begging to water the garden, and then spraying the hose into the dining room windows, soaking half the house. I see the worried face of a kid who was terrified of taking the training wheels off of his bike, in case he came across an unexpected hill.
This is the boy who still has the god-awful ugly stuffed bear I gave him as a baby, and was recently delighted when my mother sewed a new nose and mouth onto him - so much so that he took a picture with his cell phone and sent it to me.
This is the boy who used to finger paint in the pool, and make up his own words to songs...making me laugh until I fell over.
(I couldn't embed - grr. Click, and then hit 'play')
My little boy. My baby. Now a teenager.
Every day I love him more, and every day he gets a little closer to independence. Little by little, I'm learning to let him be his own little man, no matter how difficult it is to do so.
Happy birthday, little bug, and thank you for being the joy of my life.
Does it sound like a cliché if I admit that the time has flown by more quickly than I can fathom?
Yesterday, Mark and I took A and his best friend down to US Cellular Field to see the Crosstown Classic - Cubs vs. Sox in all of their collective glory. Halfway through the fifth inning, the boys wandered off to get something to eat, and after about 15 minutes, I was starting to worry. What if they were lost? What if someone robbed them, beat them, took them? What if....?
Mark laughed at me, and pointed out that we hadn't told them when to be back. "They're two teenage boys at the ballpark. Let them be."
Sure enough, they came back, having eaten a couple of hot dogs and explored half of the park. They were glowing - and enjoying a perfect day.
In my mind, they are still little boys. Look at these faces...
They stand on the verge of changing into men, and yet when I look at them, I still see the innocence of childhood. I remember taking A to the blueberry farm, and watching him set aside his little basket to eat as many blueberries as he could directly off of the bushes. I recall him begging to water the garden, and then spraying the hose into the dining room windows, soaking half the house. I see the worried face of a kid who was terrified of taking the training wheels off of his bike, in case he came across an unexpected hill.
This is the boy who still has the god-awful ugly stuffed bear I gave him as a baby, and was recently delighted when my mother sewed a new nose and mouth onto him - so much so that he took a picture with his cell phone and sent it to me.
This is the boy who used to finger paint in the pool, and make up his own words to songs...making me laugh until I fell over.
(I couldn't embed - grr. Click, and then hit 'play')My little boy. My baby. Now a teenager.
Every day I love him more, and every day he gets a little closer to independence. Little by little, I'm learning to let him be his own little man, no matter how difficult it is to do so.
Happy birthday, little bug, and thank you for being the joy of my life.
1 comments:
Boy, do I ever understand what you're feeling! My "little" boy turned 18 this year and then promptly graduated from high school. I bawled like a baby cause all I could see as he walked down the aisle to get his diploma was me holding him in my arms when he was just a few hours old, wondering what it was going to be like when he started kindergarten.
Congrats on your official teenager.