Enjoy It

Since the moment my first child was born I've heard, "Enjoy it--it goes so fast." It's hard to imagine it going fast when it's been days (weeks and months) since you've slept more than 4 hours in a row. Often it took all I had to not slap someone telling me to "enjoy it" after I had just finished telling them about the latest stomach virus that had taken over our home, or the screaming baby with ear infection keeping everyone up all night.

Truth is there were many moments that were not so enjoyable. But it seems like life's a little easier now that he's 11 (and please don't warn me about teen years.. I'm not an idiot.. I know it won't be easy). He used to educate me on the differences between a backhoe and front loader. We then moved on to Super Heros. Now it's all about lacrosse and baseball. Baseball never has interested me but I feign interest in Derek, Posada, and the Yankees because of Duke.

He got a new lacrosse head recently and we needed to have it strung. Duke has always been very guarded with speaking. He talks plenty at home, but out in the real world was another story. When he was a toddler he would point at me if people asked him questions and he was too anxious to answer on his own. I tried to fight it--tried to make him speak for himself but soon I realized he needed me. As he's grown older he's become more confident but there are still moments. We walked into the store and the pretty blonde behind the counter took out her paper and pen. Smiling, she asked Duke for his name and other information. Duke slowly turned and looked at me with a small smile and I answered for him giving the phone number, address, and other particulars. Then she asked, "ok.. how do you want this strung?"

I started to panic. I didn't realize we had options. Doesn't she know how to string it? I looked at Duke wondering how we'd get through this piece of the puzzle. Duke stood up straight and his voice was strong and clear as he pointed to the diagram on the pretty girl's paper saying, "I want the hard mesh up here and down in the pocket." She asked, "Ok. What about the sidewalls?"

There are sidewalls on a lax head?

As he spoke I watched the girls face. She had been smiling sweetly at the cute little boy but now was looking respectful as he described his needs.

"Ok, what about shooter strings... do you want to see the new colors we have?"

What the hell are shooter strings?

He nodded and I got out of my sons way as he went around the counter to review the choices. He selected his string and we left the store. I got in the van still in a bit of shock at my little boy quickly morphing into a little man. I asked, "How did you know all that... all that stuff about the lacrosse head?"

"What stuff?"

"All that stuff like, the meshing and shooter strings?"

"I just read about it on the 'net and watched youtube. Casey Powell says this is the best way to string it for an attacker."

I told him I was surprised at his choice of shooter string. He said he chose it because it was new for '09 and no one on his team had it. I smiled and he asked why. I said, "No reason." And for that brief moment he didn't have long hair, he wasn't nearly my height, and he had a super hero costume on like the old days.