I Love You!

I don't do it very often anymore, but it really starts my day of great when I follow Liam onto the porch when he's leaving for school and call out in a really loud voice "I love you, have a great day at school!".

We came to an agreement a while ago that I am allowed to say say those things ONLY in the privacy of our own home. It's made our mornings infinitely more streamlined when I'm not dealing with a bitchy 12 year old because I've admitted to STRANGERS that I, *gasp*, love him and care about him.

Because, you know, our street is just full of random people at 8am standing around waiting to hear a mom tell her son she loves him on his way to school. And then they laugh at him because OH THE HORROR.

What with how prickly and anti-mom he is now, you'd never know that this kid held my hand at all times till he was 7 and insisted I carry him well into kindergarten. Seriously. So that's why when I follow him outside and call out to him, and then I get the bellow back that I'm not supposed to say those things outside (but secretly I can tell he's pleased...right?), it gives me a perverse sense of glee. It makes me happy to have that slight little one-up on him that maybe only another parent of a pre-teen can understand.

Another by product of this getting older business is his interest in girls. It's just exploded and I was expecting it but still it smacked me up the head just the same. Honestly, it was like one day he thought they were annoying and the next he was showering every morning and making me blowdry his Beiber hair. Girls calling him, facebook chatting with him, hanging out with him at the park. GAHHHH.

But thankfully and perhaps suprisingly for my kid, he's kept a pretty open dialogue with me on what is appropriate and what's not when it comes to 'dating'. As far as a 12 year old sixth-grader can 'date'. I know this honesty won't last forever, junior high is beckoning.

So while these teen years are going to be a pain in my ass, I can still take comfort in the ability to embarass the crap outta him. I've figured out the age old rant of teenagers everywhere, why our parents were so annoying.

I've totally got this.