Friday, November 5, 2010

At 16


Once upon a time, you liked matchbox cars, toy tractors, scooters, and sandboxes. You loved playing in the woods, running the creek, and feeding sugar cubes to the horses. You told elaborate stories of kings, soldiers, and monsters, and made your own swords out of sticks and limbs.




You loved the ocean, rolling in the waves and yelling at the top of your lungs. We built sandcities, big and elaborate. I thought you would be an architect, or an engineer. You loved crabbing on the pier, walking through the old places on the island, and telling ghost stories. You loved ice cream from that special shoppe.


Nowadays you love long hair, video games, computer games, playing the guitar, and acting in your school's improv club. You love your Itouch, and texting on your phone...all the time. You love driving, and dancing, and wearing a fedora.
You are 16 years old today. You are kind, funny, sweet, loving, and what a wild ride you have taken me on. At two, you literally climbed curtains. At four, you took apart the vacumn cleaner... and the VCR... and the TV. I sat on my bed and cried. At seven you read "real books mommy, not those baby books", and did math problems at an amazing speed. At sixteen....you're still my baby. Smart, witty, bright, fun...love. Love in its purest form. Happy Birthday sweet boy.
"Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature of a boy."