Twelve

Another day and another birthday in the house. A day of celebration and fun and a reminder that another year has passed and another of my children has taken a large step towards adulthood.

Twelve. Twelve is a significant year. One more year until the start of the teen years. They are in between being children and teenagers, grown up and still young. A tweenager.

So in honour of my tweenager reaching his twelfth year of life, I wanted to share twelve things about him.

One big heart.  He is so kind and considerate, he makes me the proudest mum in the world.  He has his off moments of course but soon after those moments, he will apologise and admit that maybe he could have handled things better.  He tolerates a great deal from his siblings.  His brother is hard to handle, yet R manages to get round him when we have long given up trying.  He will sit patiently while his little sister plays her piano for him or sit and read her stories.

Two radar-like ears. That boy can hear anything and everything within quite a wide radius.  If you want to know what is going on in this family, just ask him, he knows it all.

Three siblings.  R has three siblings who all have brown hair and brown eyes, yet he has blonde hair and blue eyes.  My mother joked that he must be the milkman’s, which of course is  very old-fashioned joke these days and I had to explain to him firstly what a milkman was and why people used to say such a thing.  He was unimpressed on both counts but I did reassure him that his paternity was most definitely not in any doubt.

Four is the current number of sports that he does; swimming, Tae Kwon Do, rugby and running.  He lives for sport and can often be found doing exercises around the house in the time that is left over when the training and practises are all done.

Five minutes.  For all the good bits, he does get very engrossed (addicted) to his computer games.  The new Xbox has not helped this situation very much.  “Just five more minutes” is a phrase he uses a lot along with other such classics as “I’m nearly done”, “the game is nearly finished” and “honestly, nearly done”. I wouldn’t mind if five minutes actually meant five minutes of real time, five minutes in gaming time is, in fact, the equivalent of  twenty-five real minutes and it drives me crazy.

Six would be the number of best friends. He has settled into secondary school life so well and has an amazing group of friends who he regularly goes out with and they are all lovely.

Seven days.  Seven days in a week for R means seven days of exercise.  He cannot take a day off and even if there is nothing on training wise, he will go out and do something because he can’t miss a days training.  The boy certainly did not get his exercise addiction from me but it is not a bad addiction to have.

Eight is probably the number of hugs and cuddles I get on average from this young man each day.  He is such a loving nd caring young man and if he sees that I am struggling, he is quick to give me a hug and in swimming club mornings, if I am still asleep when he gets up, he sneaks in and gives me a little kiss (I confess that I often pretend to be asleep just so he will do it).

Nine was the year of Minecraft.  Before the exercise addiction, there was Minecraft.  It was not pretty and it caused many, many arguments.  Luckily, he has now grown out of Minecraft and I think we are both extremely glad about that.

Ten is the number of times he checks his hair in the mirror whenever he passes.  Times that by twenty and that would probably be the number of mirror checks in the day.

Eleven was the age when he discovered the thing that was to become his one true love in life; rugby.  With a father who was born in the land where the game began, it was always going to happen and as much as I can’t always bear to watch it, he is a fine rugby player and a natural on the field.

Twelve years old.  Twelve years old!! How did that happen?  Who has their finger on the fast forward button? Twelve years of amazing, happy, crazy, funny, loveliness and I could not be prouder of the fine young man that he is becoming.