A baby is born.....it is beautiful.....sweet....innocent...cuddly...endless possibilities are in the future for this tiny bundle of joy.  Parents coo, and tickle, they love and hug and endure the crying and diapers because this is their progeny.....the future of their existence......they are in love with this sweet thing, and promise to do anything in their power to care for, protect, love and nurture their cherub......

Z one week old

                                                            
Have you looked at the faces of parents with a new baby?  Sure, they look tired, but they also look happy.  They have a glow.  They have a sweet baby they can pin their future hopes on.  That child can be anything...do anything...dream anything.  Those hopes show in the eyes a new parent

Z at age 5

                                                        

Fast forward 13 years................. you first need to look at the face of a parent with a teenager. Notice the gray hairs...the haggard look on their face.....the glassy stare of their eyes....the glow has been replaced by a dull ashen look.  The creases around their mouths show you they can frown as much as they smile.  This is the face I see when I look in the mirror..... I live with three teenagers and a preteen....shoot me now....please

Gone are the dreams of what my child could be, only to be replaced by fears of this child never moving out......  I can tell you that I often wonder how in the world my 13 year old son Z will ever graduate 8th grade.  He doesn't turn in his homework, and his grades suffer for it.  Now mind you, Z does his homework.  He completes it with beautiful penmanship even.  He completes his homework and it goes to school with him.  It gets placed in his locker, and there it sits.  I have threatened Z.  I have bribed him, cajoled him, and cried.....nothing works. Short of following the kid from his locker to every class, I fear I am doomed to the role of nagging mother.  All because of his inability to take the paper out of his locker and put it in the teacher's hand.

Z age 13

Maybe I should go back to the days of pinning his homework to his shirt.  Do you think that might work?  It might however, since having something pinned to his shirt would reduce his "cool points", I am SURE that would never happen!!

I like to look at baby pictures of my Z.  I like to look at pictures of me back then....yes I looked tired, but I also had a glow to my face.   I can only hope that as Z gets older he will begin to become the man I envisioned the day I first laid eyes on him....but ONLY if he turns in his homework......sheesh......