He's Growing Up!

This past week I got new baby products from Creative Memories. It was my auto-ship box of brand-new products released in March. It's exciting to get those boxes! There are soft options and bright options, and they're all pretty cute. The first picture is the boys' products, the second picture, the girls'.

My kids' books are done. I don't have J's in a CM book, but his is mostly cards and stuff like that anyway. His pictures are all in our family album from that time. He was our life, and so it's all about him. B got a CM book from the start because I was already into CM at that time. I love hers. It's so cute and soft and full of my words to her. J's book was done a lot before he was even born.

When the box came with all these goodies in it, B wanted to see J's baby book. B was very interested in the genealogy pages I had placed in there, tracking back ancestors for 12 generations. We enjoyed looking through the book, but the thing that struck me most was something I had written to "baby Adams" before I even knew J was a boy. (See, Larry strongly wanted to NOT know what the sex of either of our children were before birth.) I had written in the section titled "Hopes for the Baby":

We hope most of all you grow up to be a Christian who knows God and loves Him. I hope that you grow into a well-behaved child who is kind to others and plays fairly. I hope you grow into a beautiful teenager, on the outside and on the inside. (I hope that you'll want to be in Band, like Mom and Dad, and that you'll want to go to our college alma mater, Texas A&M!) I hope you find a wonderful life partner to build a family with.

I wrote that not knowing anything about J, but I still desire all those things. I was surprised to see that one aspect of this "hope" had already passed me by. J's childhood is slipping into memory. B and I laughed about J being a "well-behaved" child because he really was such a challenge to parent! He is very strong-willed, and daily meltdowns were the norm. But we've survived! He's knocking on the door to that teenage era now.

I saw a blog about this sort of topic this weekend, too. Picture This author Tracey was musing over her not remembering the sweet goodness of babyhood. It's all memory now, and something is sad about that.

But the good news is, I feel really good about the future with J. We had 6th Grade Parent Orientation on Thursday night at J's school for next year. A committee of parents, teachers and administrators has been working on getting a plan going for our Dual Language kids who are going to Jr. High. We have the option of having 4 period out of 8 in Spanish: one of the language arts periods (the other in Engl.), Social Studies, P.E. and band. This strengthens my resolve for J to take band! I think he'll have a good time in there. He'll have Math and Science (we're signing up for the pre-AP classes), lunch and one period of language arts in English. I am glad we have this option, since I know J will totally lose his Spanish if he's not using it daily. The staff there was excited to see us. I got to talk to one of the band directors and we talked to one of the Science teachers as well. We got info about lunch---there are so many choices! The counselor over J's grade talked to us about changes we'll see---more time on the phone, new peer groups forming, more friend-relationship issues. J will have to organize better his school stuff. The Vice Principal went over the dress code. It was all exciting! I think J is ready.

So, I'm looking J eye to eye lately. Literally and figuratively. He and I got to spend a lot of time together this weekend, just us, as the B and Larry went to softball games. I am enjoying my boy more and more. We'll never get along like friends---we're a Mom-child pair, so I never aim to be his "friend." I have told people this weekend that I feel like I am going up the first hill of a roller coaster. You know that "tick-tick-tick-tick" you hear as you're being dragged up the first hill? I can faintly hear it now. I am scared what's over the hill, but excited at the same time.

I do look forward to this new phase, where we have conversation and actually appreciate each other. I just pray I can let go of the reigns the right amount!