Stay off the sidewalks!

After one previously unsuccessful attempt, the luck o' the Irish was with Alex today. When he pushed his chair back and smiled, I knew he'd made it to 30 correct questions without missing more than 6. It really does pay to actually read that little booklet they hand out. Consider this your warning; stay off the sidewalks and keep your children indoors. Almost 16-year-old-boy is at the wheel.

Thinking it was good enough to stop behind the car at the stop sign, and not actually again when it was your turn at the intersection was probably his only major mistake, but he has a lead foot. My dad would say 'just like his mama', but I quit driving that fast years ago when I strapped my first baby-bucket car seat into the middle rear of my Caymen Green Topaz.

That car seat held the most precious being I'd ever had the privilege of knowing so far, and he was all mine ~ all six pounds of him. The thought of driving him around, that there might be a teenage boy driving along and not paying attention, who might cause harm to one of the brown peach-fuzzy hairs on his head, made me stay home. A lot. Now he IS a teenage boy who I hope and pray will be paying full attention as we learn that *each* car has to stop at the stop sign, not just the one in front. How did we get here already? I can still remember wondering how I would ever be able to allow him out of my sight, deciding that it really wasn't so weird to be a 40 year old man living with your mama (as long as it was Alex), and that public schools were probably overrated and homeschooling him would be a much better idea.

If you ever thought you might want to talk to God a lot more often, I would highly suggest giving a huge part of your heart to a kid like Alex. He's been stitched, stapled, steri-stripped, glued, slung and casted back together more times than I care to list. Climbing up bookshelves, running headlong into things (was the kid running with his eyes closed?!), dancing jigs in the bathtub, rolling from a couch into the corner of a coffee table (at the age of 7, years ~ not months), flying from speeding bikes, stepping on rusty nails, jumping down a flight of stairs, and slamming his hand into car doors; these are just the highlights.

Now...he's going to be driving alone soon. I'll blink again, and he'll be driving alone ~ off to college.