13, Almost

He grows so fast, you can almost hear the bones creaking as they stretch.  Today, I'm planning his birthday celebration(s), looking forward to hanging out with a bunch of gangly teen boys.  This kid is a one-of-a-kind, smart and sarcastic, witty and hilarious.  He recently got a carefully-planned haircut to make him look more like a 1940's airplane pilot for the ballet recital coming up in June.  He gets to be the pilot in The Little Prince, in addition to his other dances.  He works hard at ballet, and he's excited.

He also works hard at school.  Well, hard-ish.  When I dropped him off the other day at school and said, "Get good grades!", he said, "Mom. I don't need good grades.  That would be a waste of my time.  I need PASSING grades." Worried, I looked up his grades. A's and B's.  Not as high as I would want, but definitely not as low as I hoped.  He's a trickster.  He's getting 97% in science and still went in for extra credit.  If only he could use some of those extra percentage points to get his French grade up.  He definitely gets better grades in classes he likes.  I hope he stays motivated through life and finds something he's passionate about that makes lots of money.  :)  I also hope, and I tell him this all the time, that he learns to buckle down and do the things he doesn't like.  Surprisingly, he doesn't like that idea. Luckily, he has enough things he's interested in to keep him busy.