Top ten signs that your baby has become a teenager.

1. Cleanliness. He takes a shower every other day. Sometimes every day. Always had to BEG him to take a shower after the grime and grease had been piled on for weeks. Now? He's often cleaner than me. And he even uses the hairdryer.
2. Privacy. Door's closed when he's in his room. Always. Gets upset when I don't knock. 
3. Modesty. Can't see his underwear or laundry or anything. 
4. Phone use. Constantly on the phone.
5. Sarcasm/Rudeness. Makes fun of his sister. Lots of DUHs and STUPIDs and the like.
6. Stubbornness. Won't let me help. OK, he was always like that.
7. Vanity. OMG he looks in the mirror. He checks out his hair. He smooths it out like he's the Fonz. What's up with that? 
8. Laziness. Doesn't want to help. Would rather just sit and veg. 
9. Sleeps late. Likes to sleep in. Later than ever before. 
10. Eats all the time. Food food food, snacking, junk, everything.

But: you done good if he still wants to snuggle with you, and spend time with you in general. So yes, my kid is now a teenager. Yes, he's growing up. And yes, he's still my amazing baby boy, so I'm fine with that.

Just a thought

Sometimes, the right thing to do IS to change the world.

Hmm.

I have no delusions whatsoever about this blog. I do not expect that there's anyone reading it, and I certainly do not expect that there's anyone commenting on it.

Does that mean I'm talking to myself? Sigh.

We knew this was coming...

That girl, she's always been quite the charmer. And she's always loved her boys.

Don't get me wrong... the boy has always loved his girls too. His best buds in preschool were two girls. He hung out with girls all through elementary school. He was the only boy invited to girl slumber parties... and we let him go. Even to one that was two hours away.

But the boy didn't invite any girls to his bar mitzvah. The boy never really had much of an interest in LIKING girls. (Well, until now, which is fine now that he's a teenager.)

It's the girl. We knew she'd be trouble from day one. She had her heart broken in kindergarten when the boys stopped liking girls. She was miserable when the boys stopped talking to her.

And now she has multiple boys who like her. Not sure what that means, but she loves it. Reminder: she is TEN.

Who says I'm normal?

MY Wii SAYS I'M NORMAL, THAT'S WHO!!! YEAH!

Yes, this weekend, my Wii Fit told me that I'm in a normal weight range. After all the insults from that thing, I'm psyched to have beaten it. It took a while, but I took my time and the weight is staying off this time. I'm also liking the fact that that my Mii is looking pretty good lately. Still have my goal in mind, though... will still take months but it's getting closer...

New Year's resolutions, part deux.

Resolutions are notoriously useless. What's the point of making a resolution if you don't do it? All the best intentions, just sitting there never getting done. I'm talking to you, resolutions from January 2009.

Or maybe not! I actually didn't do TOO badly.

1. I haven't blogged very often. Certainly not twice a week. So here I am back blogging. And I still love it. And it still helps with remembering the good things. And reading old blogs still makes me smile. So I still want to do it. Just need to be realistic about it.
2. Slowly and softly? Yeah, not so much. Still issues with that one.
3. The bus! I've got this one down! I usually get the girl on the bus these days, and never miss it. How proud am I?!? Yay!
4. The procrastination. I actually have been working on this one. Not too bad but I've made some progress, I think.

I don't usually keep any resolutions I make. Even when they are great ideas and I use the word "hereby."

So. Resolutions should be actionable and measurable. Goals for life, just like goals for work. So am I making life into work? Maybe. But the only way you can achieve goals is if there are actions and if you can measure them. I don't have a decibal meter so I'm cutting that resolution, but I'll still try to work on it for the sake of everyone else.

So here are my goals for 2011.

1. Return to the blogging. Once a month will be fine. Seriously. I just have to remember to start random posts throughout the month in order to remember what I want to blog about, and then post them when I have time.
2. Smile more often. Just 'cause.
3. Say no more often. Even if is not well received. I need to not care. It will be even better when following resolution #2 at the same time.

Yeah, even after I say I have to make goals measurable, two out of three are not. But realistically, I'm not going to write down whenever I'm smiling or saying no to keep track of how much I'm improving on it. Sigh.

No, it's not me.

The boy is a teenager. He's getting older, his voice is changing, and he is as well. Apparently he now sounds exactly like me. And it's not just that people ask me if they can talk to my mom when I answer the phone. Which has happened most of my adult life. But come to think of it, that hasn't happened in a while, so maybe my voice is changing too.

People think he's me when HE answers the phone. Everyone does. The mom. The friends. Even the husband. The kid loves it... he pretends he's me and listens either until he gets some info that he didn't know... or he gets bored. Freaks out most people. I had to tell the mom that she should ask some questions about trips we took when I was a kid... things the boy would never know... just to have a challenge-response confirmation before she actually started in conversation with me.

Today, I called the boy's cell phone to ask him something, and got his message.

Freaked me out... I heard myself talking but didn't remember making that message. Of course, it wasn't me.

Best night of tennis, ever.

I started taking tennis lessons over the summer. I'm really not very good. Actually, not good at all. I'd say I'm there for entertainment value for the tennis instructors.

I've never been good at sports. That includes all kinds: team sports, individual sports, recreational sports. I took ballet in preschool, and I seriously think that's all I ever did. Well, other than downhill skiing, which counts as a sport, but for me was always more of a social activity.

I'm enjoying tennis now, though. It's exercise, and eventually I might be able to graduate to advanced beginner. I'll give myself two years. The rest of my beginner class already moved up... but I have no such delusions.

My mom got me a new tennis racquet for Chanukah. I love it... Somehow it made me a better tennis player. The tennis instructor asked me if I went to the islands over winter break and got lessons. I told him that I of course wouldn't cheat on him. But seriously: it must be the racquet. I'm not doing anything differently. I somehow am just able to hit the ball now. 

Doesn't stop me from staying in the beginner class, though.