Isaac is eleven!
As usual I forgot to post here on his actual birthday, which was last Wednesday, but in any case -- Isaac turned 11! Somehow 11 feels so much older than 10, I dunno. I think I remember thinking that when he went from 7 to 8 also. That stuff is all so arbitrary and subjective, of course.
I keep remembering when I was first starting to think about doing this mom thing, and I commented that I couldn't imagine myself as the mom of a teenager, and a wise friend (though now I don't remember whom) pointed out that you don't just magically become the mom of some random teenager overnight, so to speak. ;) You grow into it, and when the time does come, it's not a random teenager but a kid whom you've molded and guided into the person that he/she is, a kid you have history with, a kid you know better than anyone else. Well, whoever it was said it more eloquently back then, but in any case, I found it comforting.
And it's certainly true, that I can't really imagine myself as the mom of a random 11-year-old, but as the mom of 11-year-old Isaac, well, that part is pretty easy. :) Although I love babies and miss having them around, and always thought that I'd find older kids less interesting overall ;) , I must say that I'm really enjoying Isaac at this age. He's old enough that we can share some jokes and conversations and experiences on a higher level; I can explain stuff and see him really getting it and integrating it into his worldview; we share a sense of humor. We've been able to enjoy watching some of my favorite movies and TV shows together (recently we watched Beetlejuice, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and he's starting to get into Buffy!). There's a lot that he can do for himself (I have got to write another post about the gradual expansion of Isaac's independence in the world) but yet a lot that he still wants me to do, and he's still a "little kid" in some sweet ways, e.g. the way he doesn't like to go upstairs to his bedroom at night until Ruthie and I are going up to her room also. He's just the right size for me to hug, and he's still willing to let me hug him (and even hug me back, unless his friends are watching ;) ), and he cares about my opinion and mostly tries not to roll his eyes at how clueless I am. ;) He makes great jokes and commentary and unexpected connections that make me laugh or think. He came to me the other day with a question about something someone had said that he wanted to know "was this racist?" and we had a good conversation about racism and the subtleties of language. I love that stuff.
Just in the past couple of weeks he has started calling me "mom," and although he had been calling me "mommy" for a couple of years now, I still haven't really accepted that I'm not "mama" any more. I don't know why both kids suddenly switched from "mama" to "mommy" against my will...but now Isaac is going for "mom" and I'm having even more difficulty adjusting to that one! Sometimes I don't respond because it didn't register for me that he was calling me, heh. Somehow I feel like going from "mama" to "mommy" was something I could live with, but going from there to "mom" is really giving me those "oh no my baby is growing up" sad twinges!
(...And in this space I just typed a long digression about how the Little League playoff schedule interferes with Isaac's birthday every dang year and how I keep vowing to plan ahead for it better, but never seem to succeed. I removed that because it was kind of detracting from the "being Isaac's mom is awesome" theme of this post. :) The short version: it's hard to plan a birthday celebration at this time of year because the baseball schedule gets so complicated and last-minute-y. But somehow we'll figure something out.)
Anyway...so Isaac is eleven and that's pretty awesome. I don't mean to make it sound like he's the perfect kid...well maybe I do ;) but he isn't, of course, but he's pretty great. I'm in no rush for him to hit teenagerdom, but of course, it'll be here before we know it. I'm sure it will be fine...she said quixotically... ;)
And now the obligatory picture :) This is from a trip to Cape Cod a couple of weekends ago. I caught Isaac just as he turned around from chucking a stone over the cliff into the ocean... :)
I keep remembering when I was first starting to think about doing this mom thing, and I commented that I couldn't imagine myself as the mom of a teenager, and a wise friend (though now I don't remember whom) pointed out that you don't just magically become the mom of some random teenager overnight, so to speak. ;) You grow into it, and when the time does come, it's not a random teenager but a kid whom you've molded and guided into the person that he/she is, a kid you have history with, a kid you know better than anyone else. Well, whoever it was said it more eloquently back then, but in any case, I found it comforting.
And it's certainly true, that I can't really imagine myself as the mom of a random 11-year-old, but as the mom of 11-year-old Isaac, well, that part is pretty easy. :) Although I love babies and miss having them around, and always thought that I'd find older kids less interesting overall ;) , I must say that I'm really enjoying Isaac at this age. He's old enough that we can share some jokes and conversations and experiences on a higher level; I can explain stuff and see him really getting it and integrating it into his worldview; we share a sense of humor. We've been able to enjoy watching some of my favorite movies and TV shows together (recently we watched Beetlejuice, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and he's starting to get into Buffy!). There's a lot that he can do for himself (I have got to write another post about the gradual expansion of Isaac's independence in the world) but yet a lot that he still wants me to do, and he's still a "little kid" in some sweet ways, e.g. the way he doesn't like to go upstairs to his bedroom at night until Ruthie and I are going up to her room also. He's just the right size for me to hug, and he's still willing to let me hug him (and even hug me back, unless his friends are watching ;) ), and he cares about my opinion and mostly tries not to roll his eyes at how clueless I am. ;) He makes great jokes and commentary and unexpected connections that make me laugh or think. He came to me the other day with a question about something someone had said that he wanted to know "was this racist?" and we had a good conversation about racism and the subtleties of language. I love that stuff.
Just in the past couple of weeks he has started calling me "mom," and although he had been calling me "mommy" for a couple of years now, I still haven't really accepted that I'm not "mama" any more. I don't know why both kids suddenly switched from "mama" to "mommy" against my will...but now Isaac is going for "mom" and I'm having even more difficulty adjusting to that one! Sometimes I don't respond because it didn't register for me that he was calling me, heh. Somehow I feel like going from "mama" to "mommy" was something I could live with, but going from there to "mom" is really giving me those "oh no my baby is growing up" sad twinges!
(...And in this space I just typed a long digression about how the Little League playoff schedule interferes with Isaac's birthday every dang year and how I keep vowing to plan ahead for it better, but never seem to succeed. I removed that because it was kind of detracting from the "being Isaac's mom is awesome" theme of this post. :) The short version: it's hard to plan a birthday celebration at this time of year because the baseball schedule gets so complicated and last-minute-y. But somehow we'll figure something out.)
Anyway...so Isaac is eleven and that's pretty awesome. I don't mean to make it sound like he's the perfect kid...well maybe I do ;) but he isn't, of course, but he's pretty great. I'm in no rush for him to hit teenagerdom, but of course, it'll be here before we know it. I'm sure it will be fine...she said quixotically... ;)
And now the obligatory picture :) This is from a trip to Cape Cod a couple of weekends ago. I caught Isaac just as he turned around from chucking a stone over the cliff into the ocean... :)
