Growing Pains

My children have officially finished the 9th and 6th grades, respectively....and they are out partying.

I, on the other hand, am in my pajamas...a term I use very loosely to describe anything I deem comfortable enough to sleep in.....pondering just how old I thought my parents were when I was in the 9th and/or 6th grade.

While I am pondering...and writing, I realize I am wearing little half glasses.....because I recently discovered I need them to see. As it turns out, my arms were no longer long enough to read without them and a computer screen with braille apparently costs extra...or doesn't exist. The point is you can't look or feel young wearing half glasses hanging at the end of your nose....and you can't convince yourself that you are still feeling twenty eight, mentally or physically, when you have a 14 year old who is staying out later than you on a consistent basis and all your favorite songs are re-makes!!

"Mom, did you ever hear this song, "I Will Survive?"

"No, honey, I respond" (sarcastically) as I look to the heavens and pray that Gloria Gaynor will forgive me.

When did this happen? I don't mean to go all "Sunrise/Sunset" on you, but.......

When did my children grow so tall that to stick my finger in their faces while making a point I have to reach up?

When did all these things happen to their bodies that required hundreds of dollars of drug store items for camp? (Razors? Tweezers?)

When did I develop a need for fiber pills? (OK, that's a whole different story....)

For the record, when I was 14, my mother was pretty much the same age I am now...and I remember thinking she was like 100 and clueless. She asked so many questions: "Where are you going? Who are you going with? Who else is going to be there? What time will you be home? How are you getting home?" And I remember thinking, "Ugh, she is so annoying.".....

Yet clearly, I asked Max all the same questions tonight....

Come to think of it, I am 43 and married with kids and Marge asked me those questions tonight as well...

Anyway...it seems I am having a "moment." School ended, the children are leaving for camp, smarter and bigger than they were the year before (but then, so am I)....and I am feeling just a bit older and slightly closer to clueless about what is beginning to go on in the minds and bodies of those two children I love more than I ever could imagine I could love anything or anyone...

I guess growing pains can come at any age, huh?

May all those heading off on summer adventures, adults and children alike, enjoy every moment of the journey that lies ahead.