My Thirteen Year Old Kid

I was terrified when Lewie turned 13.  Being a teenager meant dealing with puberty, hormones, friends, middle school, and all the unpleasantries that come with growing up.  I was worried that my sweet boy would turn into a know-it-all overnight, and I was especially concerned that he might start distancing himself from me or both me and his dad.

Sledding on a warm day in February.

Fast forward six months and Lewie has changed a bit, but so far, he's still the same sweet boy we know and love.  For starters, Lewie went to his well-visit at the end of December, and he's now 5' 6" tall and 137 lbs.  I'm still taller than him, but we almost weigh the same, and his shoe size is larger.  We can also fit into the same size shirts!  The other very noticeable difference is that he has a deep voice--deeper than his father.  Every time he goes to speak, I still get somewhat startled.  The once excited, high-pitched squeal is now a deep, "Yay!!"  We left the pediatrician's office with a prescription for acne medication since the poor boy has it everywhere--even on his arms and back.  But, other than that, he's a healthy kid just trying to navigate life with his new body that's still growing and developing.  (I remember these awkward middle school years all too well.)

School this year has been surprisingly awesome.  The nervous side of me was worried about Lewie going back to school in person after being a distance learning student during his entire 6th-grade year.  Would he make friends?  Would he navigate the wild west of learning his locker combination and changing classes?  How would he like his teachers or some of his new subjects like personal finance, health, and Spanish?  As each month passed, the worries subsided.  For one, Lewie was nominated as Student of the Month, not once, but twice for his grade--in September and November.  He also made high honors for his first two marking periods with teachers raving about his kindness, good work habits, and positive attitude.  

Friends, this year, have become more important to Lewie.  He joined Student Council and Jazz Band because his friends are in both clubs.  He also asks about seeing them any chance he gets.  When COVID surged during late Dec./early January, we told Lewie he needed to stay home; however, now that the infection rate has subsided in the school system and in our state, we've been working on arranging fun gatherings again like snow tubing, bowling, the movies, and laser tag.   He has a group of five good friends--four boys and one girl--who all like to play the same games on the computer, Xbox, and VR.  Lewie gets excited to see them at school, but most of them are in 8th grade.

Lewie's passionate about technology, computers, and coding.  In his spare time, he watches YouTube videos and Ted Talks to teach himself how to code, and I was amazed when he actually helped his sixteen-year-old cousin, Sarah, with her high school coding class.  Still, underneath this "older" exterior is my same old Lewie.  For one, he will still confuse words from time to time.  (My favorite "Lewie-ism" is his word for recliner--he calls it a "reclounge chair.")  Then, Lewie still loves trains and Minecraft.  During the holiday, Lewie shocked all of us when he asked if he could set up his Polar Express Trainset around the Christmas tree, again.  He hadn't asked for it to come out in almost five years!  Then, he surprised us when he asked if we could go to the Great Trains Holiday Show, a train display we hadn't been to since he was six years old!!   It was so fun to relive one of his early childhood memories and see that his same "spark" for trains didn't dim. 

Lewie went to the same Great Trains Exhibit when he was six years old.

Perhaps my most recent favorite memory with Lewie happened this January.  After a large snowstorm dumped more than 2 feet of fresh snow, I decided to take Bruce to a nearby park to play.  It was supposed to be a short half-hour of frolicking in the snow until the unthinkable happened--my cell phone fell out of my pocket into the white stuff.  I never saw it fall, but when I reached for my cell phone and discovered it wasn't there, my heart sank.  How on earth was I ever going to find my cell phone on a trail covered with snow?  I retraced my steps again and again, and I even had a gentleman let me borrow his phone, so I could call my husband and ask him to come and look with me.  My husband arrived shortly to the scene, but he couldn't locate it either.  We called my number over and over until we watched the sun set behind the hills.  Too bad my phone was set on vibrate.

That night I was sure my cell phone would die and be lost forever.  Upon waking, I remembered that Lewie and I had set up 'Family Sharing' on our phones.  Would he be able to locate my phone this way? In one last desperate attempt, I asked Lewie if he could try to help me locate my phone.  

     "I see it, Mother Dearest," he yelled excitedly.

     Sure enough, his phone showed my cell phone location right at the park in the vicinity where I lost it.  "Will you come help me find it?" I asked.

     "Of course," he replied, "I was already planning on it."

    With that, at 7 in the morning, we went to the park and walked to the area.  The snow was causing confusion because the map would first show the phone in one location, then skip to another location a few yards away.  "I have an idea," he said.  He used the chime or sound feature to see if we could locate the phone that way, and within a minute I heard it, saw a flashing light, and uncovered my beautiful phone!  "You're my lucky charm," I said to Lewie over and over again.  I couldn't believe that after my phone spent a whole night in the snow in almost subzero degree temperatures, it still held a charge, and more importantly, it worked.  The battery wasn’t ruined!!

The winter pictures I took before losing my cell phone.

Lewie was genuinely happy he helped me, and I was so grateful for his “technological expertise.”  We went to get hot chocolate together to celebrate.  

Yes, Lewie is definitely starting to grow into his own person, and while it's hard to watch him grow up, I couldn’t be prouder of this teen!