Oh Boy!!!

Some milestones that our children reach are quite obvious like all the babyhood firsts- the smile, the tooth, the first step.  But some are surprisingly subtle and just spring up and astonish you one fine day.   I just experienced one of those.  Suddenly I realized that my firstborn is taking his first tentative steps into adulthood even though he is only eight.  And it's not just that he is suddenly up to my shoulder but he is grown up on the inside as well.   Suddenly I find myself reading things to him from my adult books because he would appreciate it and he does.  I can talk to him about more adult topics and he understands.  He thanks me for doing things for him because he tells me he realizes I didn't have to do it for him, he gets me the extra large iced coffee because he thinks I deserve one,  he apologizes for not learning from his mistakes and assures me that seeing the consequences ( he has a hard time rolling that one off his tongue but he likes "complicated" words) next time he'll try to remember to do better.   Where did this little adult come from?  How amazing and utterly miraculous to see a  child morph from a fluffy baby to a shy toddler to an enterprising little boy to a young man!  Yep, we are almost at the threshold of manhood.  When did this happen?  There is still so much of a child in him but I am also seeing the beginning traces of the man he is slowly becoming right in front of me.  It is a really joyous and scary and humbling and grateful feeling, this blending together of yesterday, today and tomorrow.  At times like this I know with every fiber of my being  what a privilege it is to be a parent, to oversee this wondrous passage!!!