Growing and flying

There are certain heartbreaks that come with children growing up, one of them is fact they will someday leave the nest and try their wings. Loren has been slowly taking flight over the last year or so and has recently been away from me for longer and longer spans of time. This is partly due to his father being gone in Utah for the past two months and his home stands empty and a mere block from Lo’s school. A year ago it would have made me a nervous wreck for Loren to spend a week at a time away from me, on his own without any adult supervision. But now it really doesn’t bother me as much. I miss him terribly, but I also know he’s involved with his filming efforts most of the time and doesn’t have enough spare time to get into much mischief. Also, he doesn’t yet have his driver’s license so that gives me some peace of mind knowing he isn’t on the roads maneuvering a vehicle.

Last night Loren decided to come home and spend the night with us, so I drove the five miles into town to pick him up from his dad’s house. Our custom is to run by the store for an ice cream stop when I pick him up, and during this time he always asks how everybody has been doing during his absence. When I came to his sister I told him how she had been crying after school because the boys in her class are making fun of her. Loren and Cassidy are like oil and water right now, she is the studious book worm and he the free spirited artist, so when he got angry about the boys mocking his sister I was somewhat surprised. We chatted it over and he added things like:

“You know what though, Mom, she’s such an easy target, Long. Tall. Red. Braces. I would have had a hey day with her when I was in 8th grade.”

And:

“She’ll be all right. She’s smarter than the rest of them. Plus, once she gets her braces off it’ll be better. You and dad gave us all these enormous mouths and the braces just make them bigger. It’s kinda freaky but we’re a bunch of lookers, Devon, Cass and me.”

And even:

“Yeah, we have late bloomer genes, but super good ones.”

It’s times like these when I realize just how much I will miss my son and how
deeply it will hurt when he flies away for real. It’s one thing for him to be a few miles away where I bring him groceries and lunch money every few days, but for my sweet, silly, flippant boy to venture out into the world, that will smart something fierce. In the meantime I treasure our chats and sniff his head when he isn't looking.