So he turned twelve and now I have to say goodbye. I have to say goodbye to scavenger hunts and obstacle courses, to cakes doused with candies and pin the tail on the donkey. My baby celebrated his "twelfth night" with a disco. The gods can be cruel sometimes but this was about as low as one goes. I guess his education is not complete. Doesn't he know disco sucks? Not only did he want a dance party and not only did he want to invite ....girls..(yuk Cooties) ...but he did. He invited girls, he had a dance party...and guess what? He danced!
What happened to staying up all night decorating a cake because your four year old wants a Winnie-the-Pooh driving a John Deere tractor cake or a cake with flags from all around the world...or the one shaped like Zaboo from Zaboomafoo. What happened to endless breathes of balloon blowing and stashes of prizes for booty at the end of the party, gift bags, and funny hats?
I am sure someone out there can relate to this rant, maybe? I mean couldn't they all just run into the bushes and do what ever teenagers do and then come back for cake and ice cream? Okay we had cake and we saved on the ice cream which just would have been a mess but that is not the point. Who is the party for anyway? What did my son ask us to supply him with? A stick and a bottle. Sure we helped find someone with musical taste (aka not his parents) to mix a playlist or what ever you do with a playlist and we supplied ample amounts of liquid refreshments and pretzels that looked like a fleet of trucks ran over them but he really "needed" a bottle and a stick. What was he going to hold up a liquor store for fun?
Okay, the stick was for limbo dancing which when you are twelve (and a boy) is a lot easier because you are closer to the ground. For us old foggies limbo dancing is like trying to put on socks in the morning...something is going to cramp. My wife so innocently asked what the ominous bottle was for. My youngest just rolled his eyes as if he had the dumbest parents in the world.
What happened? Did she forget about playing spin-the-bottle in Junior High? That evil game that has become a passage of rite for kids for years? Did she forget the time she was locked in a closet for seven minutes in hell (or heaven) with some pimply faced geek (Ta Da). We forgot all this stuff and yet wow.
So he has grown up way cooler than I ever was or will be. He danced, he laughed...he had a good time with his school friends and he never seemed fazed by anything. He has the moves, really he looked like he was having great fun and it is very nice to see that. It was also nice to see how many nice friends he has in his class.
So I will miss the cake decorating and the dress up in costume and resign to the dress up to look sharp and making playlists. He is still my baby....and look at him dance!
