Love at 13

My 13 year old male child has been displaying some curious behavior since school started 2 weeks ago. At first I attributed these changes to a new school year with new classes and fresh new beginnings but as time wore on I began to rethink my assesment. Those of you unfamiliar with the ways of young teenage boys, let me clue you in; personal hygiene is not high on the list of things to do, neither is homework nor anything having to do with work in general. I would have to remind Fab Fabulous to take a shower at least once a week, and that yes, after showering you do in fact need to put on clean clothes. I would also often resort to bribes of sugary treats if he would pick up the dirty socks and underwear from his floor and under his bed at least once and a while. I was informed repeatedly by my boy that, "homework is the tool of the devil and that teachers have nothing better to do than to torture children with the vile concept." Also, in his opinion, school absolutely ended when the bell rang at 1:50PM and home was a sacred space, not to be defiled by things pertaining to that institution.

The day school started, my five year old daughter, Stella (MiniMoose) awoke and skipped to the kitchen to have her "1st day of Kindergarden" breakfast, then ran to her room to pick out her very coolest "first day of school" outfit and then asked me every 3 minutes, "is it time to go to school yet?" Whereas Fab Fabulous moped to the bathroom, refused breakfast of any sort, growled at his little sister and informed her that she was completely twisted to want to go to school and had to be poked repeatedly to move to the stairs and out the door. I was also not so gently reminded to be on time to pick him up that afternoon. "Ah, another school year begins", I thought to myself.

Things began to change drastically on Wednesday, the third day of school. Fab Fabulous awoke on time, jumped in the shower, asked for clean clothes and proceeded to style his hair with no less than three different hair products! I was certain I had time shifted to an alternate dimension or maybe was somnabulent and in someone else's home entirely, this just could not be my family. Knowing better to ask though, lest I upset this delicate new routine, I handed him the clean clothes, made his lunch and whisked him and his sister to school. He cam home that afternoon and did all his homework withpout being asked, referred to his daily planner which actually had somehting written in it and asked me to be sure all his laundry was clean so he could pick out exactly what he was going to wear before he went to bed. I needed a drink, seriously, who took my kid and replaced him with this alien child?

Incredulously, things continued on in this vein. I just couln't ask him what was going on for fear the new Fab Fabulous would become aware that his Mom had taken notice and snap back into the old ways. I have to admit, I love my kids no matter what and this new Fab was pretty awesome but he was also kind of freaking me out, just a bit scary and way too perfect. I decided to wait and see what would happen because surely something would prove to be the cause of all this unusual behavior.

Everything became crysrtal clear Sunday afternoon when after his daily shower and 15 minutes of meticulous hair grooming, we all went to the Back to School picnic in Diamond Heights. MiniMoose ran to the play structure, DaddyWalrus got in the interminably long line for free tacos and Fafb Fabulous' head was whipping from left to right obviously keeping an eye out for someone. I sat down to watch the Moose cavort in the playground when a very cute girl with long brown hair walked up to Fab, greeted him and then started making very sparkly come get me eyes at my boy! Everything fell into place at that moment. All the water, hair products, laundry soap and homework had been for her! I watched as she took off running across the soccer field having Fab Frabulous chase her, they disappeared behind a stand of trees and right then I knew my 13 year old had his first crush.

I'm still not sure how or even what to feel other than incredibly amused and somewhat relieved that my kid hasn't undergone some strange personality shift. I do remember my first reciprocal crush on a boy and I kept it a secret from my Mom, so the fact Fab is out in the open with his love life makes me think he really is growing into the confident, self-assured teenager I's always hoped he'd become.