Senioritis

This past weekend something happened to really solidify that yes, my son is a senior. In HIGH SCHOOL. Now, I’m not sure which one of you allowed this to happen, but it is simply NOT OK for him to be this old, for him to be looking forward to what to do “after I graduate”, for him to say things like “apartment, rent, job” and mean things that don’t include mom!

It’s. Not. OK!

This past weekend a good friend of mine who happens to be a photographer as well (and a darn good one!) got together with my son for his senior pictures. Now, The Boy HATES getting his pictures taken, so the fact that he willingly did so for me was a sign of this maturity thing I’m still not quite used too. It helped that it was a friend of ours, too. It made The Boy more comfortable, and Todd even made a special trip here to the house to take some additional pictures with The Boy and The Beast.

Then, this weekend, all my kids were away, staying with friends. It’s not often that all three are gone at once, and it was so… so… so… quiet. Is THIS what I have to look forward too? No one bickering with the other, no one calling MOOOOOOOOOOOM, no one bitching about there being nothing to eat, no one else to untangle the dog when he wraps himself around the tree for the 2243295417230129 time, no one to ask for ice cream when I go to the store, no one else for the animals to sleep with so I end up with all three cats and the dog in bed with me, no one to fight over the computer, all. the. quiet…?

(Wait – did I say I WASN’T ready for this? Lemme re-think this…)

Oh, and no one to growl at me in the morning, or crawl into my arms for a morning hug? (And yes, I still get hugs from my son, too! The one who’s GRADUATING – often in PUBLIC!)

Yeah. I’m so not ready for this. The boy seems to sense this (it could be my repeatedly calling him MAH BABY! and telling him he’s cute and pinching his widddle cheeks), and on Friday night before going to his friends, told me to stop working, put everything away, and get in the car – he was taking me to dinner. We headed to his new favorite pizza joint, and since it was Friday night and they were way busy, we put in our order and just bummed around for the hour and a half it took for them to fill it. We walked around the corner to Blockbuster and picked out some movies – but mostly? We just sat around and talked. And laughed. And played paper football. And picked on each other. And picked on the pizza place dudes – who told him that the next time he came in with his mom, they’d give him a discount. When they laughingly told me that meant he’d HAVE to spend time with me, he threw his arms around me and said “That’s fine by me, I love spending time with my mom! She’s awesome, can’t you tell?”

You know, I did something RIGHT with that boy. It’s always nice to realize that now that he’s almost all grown up, and of course I’ll always love him – I also genuinely LIKE him too. He’s quite the kid, and I am SO proud to call him my son.

Maybe I can convince him to just pay rent and stay at home… just a little longer…