Thirteen

I am now officially the mother of a teenager. My oldest son turns 13 today, but he has seemed at least 15 for a couple of years now. At 5'8" he is already half a foot taller than me, and when he answers the phone everyone thinks he's his father because of his deep voice. He's always been pretty mature for his age.

It's a little freaky for me to watch him grow into a man so quickly because I wasn't around many boys during my early teens. And most of the boys I knew then were ice skaters and not particularly masculine. ;-) (though there were a couple of exceptions) So the beginnings of a moustache growing on a 12 year old boy seems a little startling. I have to admit to being kind of in awe of this man-boy who came out of my body 13 years ago. I gave birth to this wonder.

He's very popular at school and that's a new thing to me too. It's nice in way that he has so many friends, but I've also learned that the popular boys are usually not so popular with the teachers. Maybe he has an attitude or air about him at school that they don't like, but I know that he's respectful to them. He's also much smarter than his grades reflect. In school these days, more than when I was in school, the report cards reflect conformity and behavior much more than academic accomplishment and learning. The teachers don't even seem to notice if a student is actually smart or not.

As I've mentioned here before, my son is a kind of musical prodigy. He can pick up any instrument and play it. He's teaching himself to play the guitar, and he continues to play the piano. Any song he hears he can play it. It's amazing to me because I have absolutely no musical ability at all. But I love to hear him practice, and the sound of music in the house is delightful to me.

Well, Happy 13th Birthday to my son! And let's hope that the teenage years won't be too hard. ;-)