There is something shocking about turning around to face your 12 year old and finding that you are looking directly into his eyes – while you are standing up. This happens quite often these days as my gangly son seems to be growing at a rather astonishing rate. A quick glance at the pencil marks on the door frame indicate that he’s grown something like 2 inches in the past 90 days. At that rate he should be as tall as Yao Ming by age 15 – unlikely, yet it seems quite possible. There are other signs of impending young adulthood, e.g., startlingly large feet that outgrow his shoes rapidly, the cracking “man voice” and appearance of peach fuzz on the upper lip. It seems to be happening right in front of me.
His buddy is becoming a Bar Mitzvah this weekend and Sam will be wearing, wait for it, my old suit and pants. He’ll need to cinch-up his belt (a lot) and the jacket could stand to be taken in (also a lot) but the fact is, they come close to fitting. It should be noted that my shoes don’t fit him well as his feet are bigger than my own.
This is both comical and a little bittersweet as my youngest is growing into a young man.