How Did 17 Happen?!

Yesterday was The Boy's seventeenth birthday.  How is this possible?!?

He wasn't feeling great the day before and woke up to a stuffy head and scratchy throat on his birthday.  While he's not a kid who asks for medicine, I talked him into taking some multi-symptom cold meds before heading off to school.  He told me he'd sit it out in his fitness class first period, but could make up the participation points by bringing in a scorecard from a round of golf.  That's easy.

Still, it felt like a big let down for a teenage birthday boy.  Maybe I'm grasping at the final straws of his childhood, but I felt bad that I didn't make a bigger deal out of his special day.  So, on an impulse, I decided to run by the local Daylight Donuts--one of his favorites--and pickup enough donuts for his 2nd period class.  He had math second period and his math teacher is a really pretty good guy.  I bought three dozen donuts, made a big sign saying Happy Birthday, taped it all together and ran it over to the front office of the high school.  I left it there for the office aides to deliver to the math classroom at the beginning of second period and got myself off to work.

About a half hour later I got a little text from The Boy that said "Donuts? Really?" At first my heart sank.  Maybe he didn't like the surprise.   Maybe his teacher wasn't as cool as I suspected.  Maybe treats in class for a birthday had been outgrown.  So I texted back, "What?!  You didn't like them?"  His response was "They were great.  Thx".

Relief.  I felt like a better mom after that little exchange.  I was happy he got to be celebrated a little bit more than usual.  It's his birthday after all.  and he assured me there were plenty of donuts for anyone who wanted one in his class--with plenty left for he and his friends to chow down.

Genius Golfer took a sick day--though I didn't know that at the time--and fixed The Boy's truck.  What we thought was a ring gear going bad on the torque converter, ended up being a loose bolt on the starter they replaced a few months ago.  So that was a big relief!  And it ended up a great surprise for The Boy that evening.  GG had just helped The Boy change the oil in the truck yesterday afternoon/evening and the poor kid was stressing how he could help pay for the ring gear job in time to have his truck back so The Girl could drive her little Escort--that he's been driving while the truck wasn't starting correctly.  So that was a GREAT BIG surprise to him.

We took him to dinner (win for me!) and we had cake and ice cream.  It was low key, and just the three of us.  I feel a little spoiled by the parent/child time we get with him having no issue of sharing him with friends.  I know it won't last, but I sure relish it while he's here.  During dinner I was just so grateful he enjoys hanging out with us and isn't embarrassed to do that.  After dinner, we watched a silly half hour of TV and then he went to bed early hoping to wake up feeling a little better.

It was one of those days as a Mom that was like a payday.  I love days like that.