Monday, February 27, 2012

February love 17

I've somehow obtained a 10-year-old. I mean, he's always been here, as he is my firstborn, but he's all of a sudden big and, well, not little. I remember wanting a baby, not a boy scout. Where have the past 10 years gone?

All kidding aside, I can't believe how big Thomas is getting. I went to pick him up the other day from his karate sparring class. I kept mistaking him for another kid, because that kid matched the height that I imaged Thomas to be. The real Thomas, the one that was actually mine, was tall and looked like a big kid. It kind of punched me in the gut that he isn't the 2nd or 3rd grader that I imagine him to be.

I love it though. One of my favorite things is mentioning something to him - like the candidates running for the republican party nomination - and I'm not really teaching him anything. He rattled off a few of them, "oh, yeah, there is a kind of youngish one, isn't there? And then another guy, and one with white hair?" How does he know this stuff? I find him teaching me things about circuits - which he built in both scouts and school in the same week - and the civil war and current events that I never imagined would be on his radar. He even had his maturation program at school a few weeks ago (it kind of freaked me out the stuff that they talked about, that he definitely knows now about sex and the possibility that his parents have done it. He even said to Shane that night: "Wow, you two must have had to be really careful and stuff when you were trying to have Ben." I laughed because I thought that maybe he thought we had never done it again after Ben - but Shane assured me he knows that we do. I don't know which is worse.) (Ick. Sorry to state to the world these bare facts - mom, my dear sweet mother-in-law, nieces - you can skip the last paragraph, mmmkay?)

I love talking about books with him. I love watching him zip through a book in a few days. I like him knowing things and having opinions. I like teaching him stuff about life and church and science and current events and even sex. The moments like we had a few weeks ago when Ben was making an obnoxious noise on the floor and Thomas said to me, "Did I ever do that" and when I assured him he had, and does, he said, "Wow, I'm sorry!" and laughed. How awesome is that! To see him growing up is such a wonderful thing. Sure I sometimes wish I could have him revert to a little baby just for a few hours - I'd love to hold that sweet weight in my arms again, to play with his baby-soft sideburns and smell that baby scent of him - but it isn't going to happen, and that's okay. We have so much future ahead of us to learn about each other and life and us as a family - how awesome. I love it and I love him and am so glad he picked me to be his mom.

2 comments:

Melanie said...

I love the way you describe it - the fun of having a growing up kid. I love babies so much, and really want my kids to stay little. But I have so much fun discussing real life stuff with Tanner. Maybe I can be excited to work up to that with the others instead of wishing them little. Oh, and Thomas is a great kid, by the way. :)

Amy Sorensen said...

Mel is right, he is a great kid! And it is fun, starting to see their adult persona attach itself.

Just wait till he's taller than you, that's all I have to say!