Today, Padawan Learner signed up to be a volunteer at our local nature center as part of their Youth Volunteer Group, which [...]]]> Padme:  ”Ani? My goodness, you’ve grown.”
Anakin:  ”So have you, grown more beautiful… for a senator, I mean.”
Padme:  ”Ani, you’ll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Today, Padawan Learner signed up to be a volunteer at our local nature center as part of their Youth Volunteer Group, which is run at the same time as their homeschooling classes for younger children. When I told him about it, he was interested but wanted to know more about what he would be doing. While it would have been easy for me to send out a quick email, I knew that it would mean more for him to find out for himself.

So I drove us out to the nature center after lunch today. Once we got there, he went about asking for the homeschooling program director and getting the information he wanted. It was, well, just so nice seeing him take charge of making this decision. He listened to what she said, asked a few questions, and decided to sign on to volunteer once a month.

I couldn’t be prouder.

Padawan Learner hit the jackpot. The thing he has been dreaming about since he first held one last year has become reality. Behold, Padawan Learner’s new [...]]]> “From the moment I met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when I haven’t thought of you.” – Anakin, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Padawan Learner hit the jackpot. The thing he has been dreaming about since he first held one last year has become reality. Behold, Padawan Learner’s new iPod Touch.

I got proof tonight that he’s going to do just fine in this world. How? His first couple of purchases included the Flashlight, Lightsaber and More Cowbell apps. “I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.” Family and friends alike pooled their money to make him the happiest guy in.the.entire.world. I think he’s still in a bit of shock. Any MUST GET apps for the iTouch that you recommend?

Happy Birthday to my favorite young man!

Padawan Learner came rambling out of his room this morning without his shirt on and I almost fell off my chair. My little boy is growing up AND IT’S FREAKING ME OUT.  His shoulders appear to have [...]]]> “The boy is dangerous. They all sense it, why can’t you?”  -  Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

Padawan Learner came rambling out of his room this morning without his shirt on and I almost fell off my chair. My little boy is growing up AND IT’S FREAKING ME OUT.  His shoulders appear to have widened overnight, but perhaps it’s because it’s been too cold out to go roaming around the house without a sweatshirt on for a couple of months now.

I’m sure his tiny, little, impossible-to-find-slim-jeans-for waist and hips are helping make his upper body look even wider but COME ON, Mother Nature! I can’t handle these changes coming at me so fast. Wasn’t he just 6 last week, and 2 the week before that?

That blond hair and those brilliant, blues eyes have been trouble since day one. Then, you made that hair wickedly thick and wavy so that I can’t bear to make him get it cut, thereby curling seductively at all the pre-teen and teenage girls  you’ve dropped so casually around us. He has a little entourage now at his trampoline class, thankyouverymuch. Wasn’t it bad enough that you made him 6 inches taller than me in the past 18 months so that I have to strain my neck to give him a talking-to?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re quickly building him into some kind of blond, blue-eyed, flowing-haired, V-shaped, almost no body fat, already has 6-pack abs at the age of 13 danger zone. AND to top it all off, he just learned about the joy in working out at the Y (“The cardio machines have individual TVs that let you pick your own shows!!!”), so it’s only going to get worse. Thanks, Mother Nature. Thanks a lot.

When he starts figuring girls out, I’m doomed.

COME ON: the favorite exclamation of Gob (pronounced like the Biblical name, Job) in Arrested Development, one of the best shows to ever come from television. All three seasons are on DVD and I highly recommend you watch them all (without your kids in the room). We say this expression  all.the.time  around here.