Happy 11th Birthday, Thing One!

Thing One practicing his presidential acceptance speech at the Smithsonian in August.

Thing One now is 11. It's not as significant as jumping from single to double digits, but it does remind that his march to teenagedom is growing ever shorter. And just beyond that is adulthood.

Earlier this month, I felt like I got an early preview of what he'll be like as a man. He was at his weekly tennis lesson, and had been paired with a particularly lovely young woman. As I watched from the sideline, all I could hear him say was "Yours" or "Mine" in the polite way that some tennis players do it. I could almost imagine him 10 or 20 years from now, running around on a tennis court and doing the same thing with his girlfriend, or (dare I say it) his wife.

This is a big year for him, though. It's his last year of primary school, and we're spending most of September and October running around to visit secondary schools. He was always tall and scrawny, but now he's starting to fill out. He made the school football team, which makes me proud of him, but he's also an excellent big brother, which makes me even prouder.

However, I know he's not a man yet. I know this because I overheard the boys talking this morning about what it takes to be a man.

"To be a man," Thing Two said confidently, "You have to have rode The Griffon."

The Griffon, for those of you who don't know, is a roller coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg with a 90 degree drop that's 205 feet high, along with multiple loops and, for good measure, no floor. It takes roller coaster madness to a whole new level. I bribed Thing One to not ride on it because I thought it crossed the line from "fun-scary" to "dangerous-scary." (As it turns out, I was right. While looking up the facts above, I saw that the ride got stuck on the first precipice less than a week before we were there, and they had to take five people to the hospital. See? Maternal instincts are always right.)

"To be a man," Thing One responded, "You have to have either rode the Griffon or be 21."

He'll be a man before I know it.

Happy Birthday Thing One.