Denial....it's not just a river in Egypt....

it's a friggin' ocean. So how do you keep from drowning in it? (many years ago, a quote from Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy)

Yep, I'm back at the corner of bitter and sweet again this week. 

Today's post of denial is about Elder Son.  Who's growing up way too fast.  He's not featured a lot here on the blog because, well, teenagers are completely different creatures when it comes to blogging.  The shame, the embarrassment, the privacy clause, etc.etc.

We recently celebrated his 14th birthday with a party...about 4 months late.  (with a trip to the bowling alley, after I nixed the go cart track racing.)  Which at this point I'd like to interject that I beat all of the people in our party, of every age even the 39 year old with me, in bowling---twice!!! 

I said Elder Son could invite as many friends as I could hold in my vehicle and we'd meet his father after work one Friday night.  He invited 3 friends.  A boy and two girls.  And as luck would have it, the two girls "like" the two boys in my car and vice versa.  I felt like a chaffeur the entire evening. What's up with this?  I'm used to breaking up knock down drag outs in the garage every day for who gets to ride in the front with me. Hmph.  We're not in Kansas anymore.

When the mom of the boy (and good friend of mine) called to check in on the evening she asked "how's your triple date going?".  I promptly replied this WAS NOT the "d" word, as we were just simply out bowling to celebrate Elder Son's birthday, why in the world would she call it that? 

After bowling, we visited a yogurt shop where I quickly snuck some candles in Elder Son's yougurt bowl of choice.  And since it doesn't matter to me what Elder Son's age is, or who his party guests are, or where we are at the time, I even made him blow them out! But, I did not torture him with the awkward Happy Birthday song in the middle of the packed out Friday night yogurt crowd.

So, the circle of life....you invite girls and boys to Elder Son's toddler and preschool parties, even up to mid-elementary or so....then comes the drought of only guy parties for a couple of years, and now we're back to mixing it up again.  Oh Lord, help me.

Yep, he's growing up alright, how can I tell?  It can be witnessed in the following photos:

• He is no longer one of the kids registered for VBS, but rather one of the Recreation Leaders on staff for VBS. (And he does a SUPER job, by the way!)

• He has muscles. Guy muscles. 

• He's past the stage where he would be embarassed to even be SEEN on a pink float, much less float around for hours and smile for the camera.

• He's taller than me and he looks like a guy. Not a child. A good looking guy. With gorgeous eyes. Where you can glimpse that sweet and tender soul inside.

Sweet Mercy.  I am enjoying having a front row seat to watch him grow.

Even if it includes girls coming to his birthday celebrations.