When you’re anticipating the birth
of your children, you dream of the first tooth and the first step. There are
pages in baby books where you can document these milestones with dates and
photos.
Theo is 12 today. Here are the
milestones I never thought about, but for us, have been remarkable events. The
first time he:
- Said dad instead of daddy. Then later, mom instead of mommy
- Crossed the street himself
- Rode his bike to the park on his own
- Sent me a text
- Sprouted hair above his lip
- Used his own keys to walk through the door
- Looked in a mirror and cared about what he saw
- Met my gaze at eye level…for he was exactly my height
- Found a lower octave sneaking into his speech
- Was embarrassed by his mom in public
Tweenaged is so interesting. He’s still a kid in
many ways. Yes, he was bored on our recent farm trip, but he still says “Oh,
yay!” when we’re doing something he’s excited about.
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| Jekyll and Hyde: The Tween Years |
Sometimes he’s the kid we recognize, the sweetie pie
he’s always been reputed to be. Others, he’s moody in a way that's new. Once in a
while he’ll slam a door, which is more amusing than maddening since it’s so
unlike him. He’s always smiled at our annoying jokes, but lately he’s
exasperated when we joke with him too much or ask too many questions. Recently he
even grunted when I touched his hair!
He sucks at talking on the phone but is great about
texting – very responsible, probably because he’s still excited to have a
phone, even if it is a hand-me-down with no working sound.
Suddenly he wears the same jeans every day because he
likes them.
His vocabulary has been reduced to "good" as the answer to most questions.
His vocabulary has been reduced to "good" as the answer to most questions.
And have I mentioned how he’s grown like whoa? Yesterday,
he and I shared shoes. Today, he and Joe switch their 10-and-a-halves. Two months ago I blogged that he would be my height soon, and now he is.
Pride is something I see Theo experiencing more often these days. He's proud to have more independence -- a phone, his own set of keys. He actually cared about the praise from his teachers at the end of the year. He was proud to get a compliment about being the best at sound in film camp, and proud to be a junior counselor at another camp (he came home smiling every day that week). He learned to sign his name in cursive, since they didn't teach it in school. He has an email address. Little things like that are increasingly giving him confidence. And so far he hasn't tired of everyone commenting on how tall he is!
He is still ultra cautious when crossing the street – overly so, but I'm not in a hurry for that to change. Recently, he walked
off the subway to go to school…while I stayed on it. I didn't expect it to be such a strange feeling... he had been alone in our neighborhood plenty, but here he was, released to LIC? The panic was starting to set in when 4-5 minutes later I got the text that he'd reached school. Silly mommy.
Some things are constant – his devotion to his little sister. His ability to play Minecraft and Wii U all day is equal to his ability to go with the flow (when I tell him it's time to stop, he always says "ok.") Despite his impending teendom, he is good-natured with relatively little attitude.
And even when he's 50, I bet he'll still make me massage his shoulders while we watch TV.
