I have a friend who told me that her nine year old son’s recent growth spurt has her mourning the loss of her little boy. After she mentioned it, I picked up my glass (the one that was sitting there half-full) and I realized that one of the benefits of having a child who is almost ten, but who is the size of a kindergartner, is that he still fits in my lap.

Yesterday morning, my son climbed into a chair with me and sprawled out across my legs. While I sipped coffee and scanned the newspaper, he reclined his head against my shoulder and read the comics. We sat like that for a while. I don’t know how long he had been staring up at me when I finally noticed.

I smiled and gave him a kiss on the top of his head and asked, “Are you finished with the comics?”

He nodded and said, “Yeah.”

Then I looked in to my coffee cup and saw it was half-empty as he remarked, “Oh, and Mom? You have really big nostrils.”

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