Mark has always been quite the charmer, especially if there's something he wants. He can turn on the charm and work a room like nobody's business.
He was so dang cute when he was little, with mile-long eyelashes and chubby cheeks you couldn't help pinching. People would fight to hand him cookies, candy, stickers, you name it. It was hilarious to watch.
Well, Mark's older now. His face has leaned out, but he still has those killer lashes. He wears glasses now, which make him look more serious, more mature, but when he smiles, you can still see the sweet little boy inside. I think he's still adorable (even with his hacked up hair), but hey, I'm biased.
I'm not surprised he can still turn on the charm--what I'm surprised about is who he's turning it on for. His target audience has changed, and is now skewing toward a much younger crowd.
That's right, I'm talking about girls. The same girls he ignore until last month. And while I know, intellectually, this is all age-appropriate, emotionally, I'm freaking out a bit.
He was so dang cute when he was little, with mile-long eyelashes and chubby cheeks you couldn't help pinching. People would fight to hand him cookies, candy, stickers, you name it. It was hilarious to watch.
Well, Mark's older now. His face has leaned out, but he still has those killer lashes. He wears glasses now, which make him look more serious, more mature, but when he smiles, you can still see the sweet little boy inside. I think he's still adorable (even with his hacked up hair), but hey, I'm biased.
I'm not surprised he can still turn on the charm--what I'm surprised about is who he's turning it on for. His target audience has changed, and is now skewing toward a much younger crowd.
That's right, I'm talking about girls. The same girls he ignore until last month. And while I know, intellectually, this is all age-appropriate, emotionally, I'm freaking out a bit.
Case in point: I recently sent Mark to diabetes camp. When he returned home, Mark dumped out his bag. His name tag fell out, too, and I noticed it had been altered a bit.
Some girl's phone number! I remembered a girl hugging Mark goodbye when we left, and asked if it was her number.
"Nope," Mark simply said, and left it at that.
And now, his cell phone has been buzzing off the hook with text messages. Ninety percent of the messages are from the same three classmates--all girls.
"You've been getting a lot of text messages lately," I observed, and he just shrugged.
"Mostly from girls, huh?" I prodded. Another shrug; then, nothing.
The ironic thing is, Mark's super nosy and jealous whenever I mention guys, even if I'm just talking about my boyfriend George Clooney, or my husband Harry Connick Jr. He gets all mad, wrinkling up his nose and growling--yes, growling--when I even say their names.
I've been waiting years to get back at him. I tease that when he gets his first girlfriend, I'm going to growl at her and give her the stink eye, just like Mark always does. But now that the girls are actually REAL, and texting, it's not quite as funny. Now I just want to growl in general, not at Mark or the girls, but at life, and how quickly my little guy is growing up.
Sigh...I knew this day would come, and I'm glad he's being a little gentleman about it. But seriously...I. AM. NOT. READY. FOR. THIS.
No comments:
Post a Comment