just right

Ten years ago, Tucker was so small and dream-soaked.
He's much bigger now, but still very dream-soaked. He was lucky to have, at school this year, so many solid caretakers of his aspirations and curiosities.

I notice it happening even more these days -suddenly, at the end of grade four, my son knows way more than I do about something he's discovered all on his own, something real and important and not just comic strips or Mario Kart.

You know, strawberries aren’t actually berries. But bananas are classified as true berries. Scientifically speaking, eggplants and oranges are berries too.

I have learned to stop being surprised. To just be amazed.

Pluto was disqualified as a planet before it ever even made it around the sun.

And I am learning to wonder aloud, What else do you know that I haven't asked?

Well, during the Civil War they used to make coffee out of acorns. You know about necessity and invention. The availability of coffee beans dwindled and the Confederates had to be creative. They tried brewing all sorts of things, asparagus and dandelions and potato peels. They were desperate. And anyway, nobody can soldier without coffee.

Tuck seems to be occupying a notoriously wobbly zone between adolescence and adulthood. Last night we let him have a bit of iced coffee here at home before heading to a late ball game. He rested in the hammock reading library books he'd checked out on his own after school, and then ran bases and cheered for teammates until after 10pm.
He is equal parts initiative and inertia.
He is baby bear in the Goldilocks version of growing boys - just right.