How can it be?

Tony has gone and grown up.
In the span of 30 minutes.
Seriously!


He left the house today my baby
and came home a young man.


All due to a haircut.
Well, not really.

Sure, he's had plenty of haircuts before,
but I think there's this magically age
(usually around 8th or 9th grade)
where one day you look at your child
and suddenly you see a young adult.

With my 4th baby it just seemed to happen with the removal of about 5 pounds of hair.

I clearly remember the day I noticed Nae had changed over night.
It was the summer before her 8th grade year.
We were sitting in an auditorium for 8th grade orientation.
I looked over at her and thought "Holy cow! I see a woman!"
And I couldn't take my eyes off her.

And she noticed.

"Why do you keep staring at me?!!" she whispered.
"I'm not." I said nonchalantly and turned and tried to focus on the lady speaking.
That lasted all of 2 seconds and I was staring again.

"Will you stop?!!" she hissed.
"What?" I tried to pretend I was looking at something else that just happened to be over her shoulder.

She didn't buy it.
Mostly because I kept gawking.

But hey, I went through 38 hours of labor!
I figure I'm entitled to a little gawking.

Can I have an 'amen' ?!

Anyhoo, of course, I'd love to prove my point by sharing "before and after" pictures of Tony.
And of course, being the teen that he is, he refused to let me take a picture.

I could go up and take one of him sleeping....

Please note that I am showing great restraint right now.
Yep, I'm a good mom.

Steel-toed boots

My 18 y/o son, Bud, started working for Hubby at his company yesterday.

Bud is working in the warehouse cutting apart armoires. It seems that no one wants to buy an armoire anymore. With flat screen TV's becoming so popular people want more of a cabinet that they can store the video equipment in and mount the TV above. One type of armoire that Hubby sells can be cut in half and refinished to make more of a TV cabinet. That's Bud's job.

So I guess they have like hundreds or thousands or something. And they've been trying really hard to sell them. But they can't even seem to give them away. They tried.....you buy a couch.....you get a free armoire.....no thanks. You buy a end table....you get a free armoire.....uh uh. You buy a lamp....take one of those armoires over there on your way out, they're free!.....nope.

I just don't get it. It's FREE for goodness sake! I'd take em for that reason alone. Good thing Hubby is here to restrain me or we'd have a whole house packed with em (just like my cupboard full of free coffee mugs).

So I sent Bud off to work yesterday morning. He looked so cute (don't tell him I said that) he had on his little steel-toed boots and was caring his lunch that I packed in a cooler for him. He was so excited....I think he is just glad to be getting out of the house.....making some money for his 3 week trip to Canada with some buddies in a couple weeks.

Hubby called me about an hour later. Said he was looking out his office window on the second floor waiting to see Bud pull in. When he saw Bud's truck he headed down stairs to make sure Bud knew where to go.

Hubby said when he came out of the building he almost did a double take. Here was this man walking toward him.....it took a second to realize it was Bud....sunglasses on, tall (taller than Hubby now), shoulders back (yes, it so nice to see him without his back brace for the kyphosis), with a purposeful stride (not dragging his feet like usual), and a big smile on his face.

Hubby said he felt so proud right at that moment. His son was a man, a big, confident, happy man.

Hubby went on to say "And I'm so happy to see that he has been listening to me. I'm always telling him to stand up straight, put his shoulders back, pick up his feet when he walks. At least he is doing it when he's in public."

I just listened to Hubby and agreed with him, telling him he's a good dad.

I didn't tell him about how Bud has trouble walking in those steel-toed boots. If he drags his feet he will fall flat on his face.

Bud, a little slouchy, but ah well.