Moments with Eli: Samuel Adams

If you’ve read my other Moments with Eli posts, you already know that this kid is a ham. As his big brother Zachary says, “That kid’s sense of humor is GOLD!”

Unfortunately (for Zachary, anyway) you never know when one of his funny/creative impulses is going to strike.

This time, it hit while we were in the middle of Publix.

He just HAD to have his picture made next to the life-size Samuel Adams cut-out.

As we’d just left their homeschool group’s end-of-year art show, I had the camera on hand. Lucky for Eli.

But Zach, in all his hormonal pre-teen glory, was mortified. And I got to experience my first nerdy-parent-humiliating-my-teen moment. It was classic!

Zach wandered away, studying the Coca-Cola display, pretending he didn’t know us as Eli hammed it up by ol’ Sam and I snapped a couple of pics. As we walked toward the registers, Zach quietly said, “I am never going grocery shopping again!”

I laughed. “With Eli?”

“No! With you!”

Surprised, I laughed again. “Why not?”

“Because you need to learn how to act more mature when we’re out in public!”

(Which made me want to laugh all the harder because he was practically quoting me, verbatim…that is something I’ve said to him I don’t know HOW many times in the past few years.)

But I remembered how horrible it was to be that awkward age, when you think the whole world is looking at you, and you spend most days wishing the earth would open up and swallow you whole to spare you the humiliation of your own existence. And I didn’t respond with sarcasm or more laughter. I just said that I was sorry we had embarrassed him. But inside I was still giggling–it was just so unexpected, so different from what I’ve experienced as a mom thus far.

I know it was just a tiny taste of things to come. What an odd juxtaposition I find myself in, parenting a near-teenager, a silly second-grader, and a new baby all at once. They keep me on my toes, that is for certain!