They Grow Up So Fast

This is “Book Cover Lad.” He named himself last fall when I was trying to get him to go to school and all he wanted to do was horse around with the mandatory book cover which he never used even once.

At that point he was still shorter than me, could barely pick me up, and spent more time at home than off with his friends.

Since then he has learned to skateboard, which he insists is called skating. Back when I did it way too many years ago it was called boarding. He’s gotten himself deeper into trouble than I’d expected him to, learned swearwords I never use, grown two inches taller than me, and runs with boys who are always very polite to me, but probably scare the ladies down at the nursing home out of their Depends.

This weekend Mr. Al took the family to the movies. We don’t do this often; once, maybe twice a year. We went to see Ironman. Book Cover Lad claimed he really, really wanted to see it, but apparently he didn’t want to see it badly enough to do so with his family. He elected to hang out with his friends at a friend’s house instead.

Tell me this is normal, cause frankly this teenager business has me scared.