My Twelve Year Old

This has been a major year for my son.  When I hear him in the next room, I think I'm listening to a man.  He is starting to grow hair on his legs.  He asks me to buy deodorant at the grocery store.  And he puts on acne cream at bed time.  What happened to my little boy?  His shoe size has surpassed mine.  He is hungry all of the time.  He eats faster than I can put the food on his plate.  And he burps like a construction worker.  What happened to my little boy?  He wants an I Pod (he bought one this year with his own money).  He wants his own e-mail account (he just got one last month).  He wants to go on Facebook (not until he turns 13).  What happened to my little boy?

And yet today was different.  We spent the day in Long Point for my niece's birthday party.  We gathered at the beach where my son, my daughter (almost 8) and their cousins, only 7 and 3, played together nicely.  They frolicked in the water with their boogie boards.  They built sandcastles like it was 5 years ago.  And they buried each other in the sand.  Although my little nephew spent some of the time napping on his towel, sunbaked.  My twelve and a half year old enjoyed it just as much as his much younger sister and cousins. 

We returned to the cottage where the four of them watched "The Magic School Bus", with red faces and sandy feet.  Then we dined on thick juicy porkchops and homemade potato salad cooked to perfection.  The birthday girl blew out the candles and we dug into the carrot cake.  My big boy sat on the couch with his little boy cousin as they devoured their cake. 

Yes, for an afternoon, I had my little boy back.  I can rest easy.  At least until he asks for the car keys!


Photo courtesy http://static.guim.co.uk/