"When it's time to change..."

The great Peter Brady once sang, in a cracking voice...

When it's time to change you've got to rearrange
Move your heart to what your gonna be
Sha na na na na na na na, sha na na na na

Well our kids haven't logged any time watching "The Brady Bunch" and fortunately for Reed we don't have a family singing group, but nonetheless Reed has something in common with Peter. Somewhere along the last six months or so, his voice has changed. There were very few Peter Brady-type voice-cracking moments. And the change was subtle - Tod didn't even notice it until a neighbor mentioned it. Reed's voice is now deeper and he sounds much more grown up now.

Last night I watched a bunch of videos Tod has taken over the years and marveled at the difference in his little kid voice and his current voice. Oh my gosh it was almost too much to handle.

Sidenote: somehow video has always been Tod's domain, while I stuck with still photos. I am so very grateful that Tod took some videos over the years - we don't have tons of them, but we do have some real treasures, capturing the kids' personalities when they were "littles". Definitely have to keep that up, these videos mean so much to me.

Last year being a "kid"

Reed turned 12 last week. Twelve. Next year, he'll be a teenager.

Reed reported that he didn't feel any different upon waking on his 12th birthday. It seems like he grows taller every single day and I will be surprised if he's not taller than me by the end of sixth grade. He reads a lot less these days, it seems (though he tells me he reads a lot in school, specifically in language arts class), preferring to play Civilization on the computer (and sometimes Minecraft too, it's apparently come back into middle school fashion again, at least for a little while), or Xbox games. You'll find him wearing headphones around the house more often than not, listening to NFL/fantasy football podcasts. He's still a picky-ish eater and would rather eat 4 bowls of cereal than most of the dinners I prepare - for the record, his favorite meals other than cereal are pizza, cheeseburgers, taco night, and what we call "Tortellini Soup" which is frozen tortellini boiled in chicken stock (why yes we are gourmets).  He showers pretty much every day with much less grumbling complaining (he's come to the realization that it's not a fight he's going to win). He's in the middle school habit of not wearing a coat even though it's freezing ("It won't fit in my locker!") or taking an umbrella or rain coat when it's raining ("It would drip all over everything in my locker!"). He frequently asks for a cell phone, even though he never talks on the phone. He can text on his iPod Touch but can't be bothered with setting that up.

And speaking of sixth grade, Reed managed all A's on his first middle school report card. He seems to have settled in with no problems, despite how awful all the kids' books say middle school can be. Let's hope it stays that way!

Love and marriage

This just popped in my head and I think I've never written about it so I figured I'd better get to it!

When Reed was a kindergartener, one day he asked if he could have the coupons that were leftover after I cut out what I needed. Then he clipped a bunch out himself and said they were for when he and Camryn P. got married.

What?!

He brought them to his room and kept them there for a long time. That was the first time he'd ever mentioned "marrying" someone. And you know what? So far it's also the last. He's never mentioned another girl in that way again!