My boy is growing up

I realized this week how grown up and mature my boy is becoming. He'll be 11 in two months and this week has been a big wake up call for mom. He's almost as tall as me. He can even pick me up. He just crossed over from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts. He has one more month in Elementary School and in just a few short months will be starting 6th Grade. How can that be? More than the lapse of time, I see it in other areas, too. He has started feeding and caring for the horses pretty regularly (although I was the one to go out in the freezing rain tonight). He wants more privacy and has learned not to let his sister taunt him into fits of anger (as much as he used to) by pretending it doesn't bother him and eventually she stops. He filled up my flat tire using his dad's air compressor and when that flipped the fuse box he marched inside, opened the box and flipped the power back on like he's done it 'his whole life'. He carries a wallet with his ID, library card and Hunter Safety card. He has his own .22 rifle and is shooting really well and does a great job taking it apart, cleaning it, and then putting it back together. Today he brought in wood, split some wood and started a nice fire. Yesterday the kids were learning about fuses and Tesla's coil in school and one of their assignments was to go out to the truck, find the vehicle's fuse box and report back how many there were and what some of them control. He said, "Oh, I know where some are" and retrieved a few spares from his dad's toolbox so they could study them. He's constantly reading and teaching me things and his autonomy in completing his schoolwork has improved immensely (which has always been a huge goal of mine) and probably the one gauge that I both embrace and mourn at the same time. He's growing up so fast. I've always proclaimed that although I am a mom of young children, I am raising adults. One day they will leave our little nest and enter the world as giving, loving, confident contributors of society. But does it have to happen so fast? I remember having a conversation with him when he was about 4 and I asked him all teary what was I going to do when he was too big for me to hold in my lap? He said, "Don't worry mama, I'll hold you." I cried. That just seems like last year. I would definitely say he and I have a special bond; the kind only a mom and son can have. We are buds and we love to tease and pick on each other and he LOVES to scare me...it's just something we do. He still lets me snuggle with him, read to him and hang with him but I also see him wanting to spend more time with his dad and learn all the tricks of the trade from MacGyver. He's becoming a little man and I am proud to watch him grow and find his own identity. Part of the realization is that we have a lot of things we want to do as a family before he is off doing his own thing spending more time with his friends than with his family. I guess, mostly, it just makes us not want to take it for granted and be a little more purposeful.

Here's a little stroll down memory lane...I just had to dip my toe into some old pictures of my boy!