He's a little comedian in the making...

When my son Landen was almost 10 years old, his personality started to unfold. People would say, “he’s so cute…so well-behaved…is he always this quiet?” He is not. Cute yes, very handsome, he has his dad’s cute little face (I used to call him “sweet face” when we first started dating), but Landen inherited another trait from his dad - his sense of humor. I often think it was the laughter that captured me. I laughed my way right into motherhood, and then I stopped laughing.

As Landen grew, I found my laughter again, it was like talking to a mini version of his dad…which he is, I guess. Personally, I laugh from my stomach, loudly...but Landen’s laugh seems to come from his heart. In fact, he can barely tell his jokes or stories without being interrupted by his own laughter. Like one day, he was trying to tell me about his P.E. teacher yelling at his class. Now, Landen doesn’t just tell you what happened, he acts out the scene and mimics the voices. He is a little comedian in the making.

He says to me, his P.E. teacher walked one boy over to the fence to sit out, (he puts his arm around an imaginary person’s shoulders, looking to the side as he walks away whispering) “hey, you don’t always have to say some….” letting the end of his sentence trail off. Then he comes back towards me, and says to the rest of the imaginary class, “YOU ALL COME OUT HERE RUNNING LIKE A PACK OF WILD ANIMALS RELEASED FROM THE BARN!” and then laughs that laugh that empties out his lungs making him gasp. So now I’m doubling over in laughter and I ask, “he said, YOU ALL COME OUT HERE RUNNING LIKE A PACK OF WILD ANIMALS RELEASED FROM THE BARN?!” and Landen nods, while still laughing, so I start laughing louder, letting my own imagination take over; I have been there as a teacher!

My son's imagination is out of this world, and I’m glad…for now. At 7 or 8 years old, he was fascinated with starting a YouTube Channel, explaining how to build things with Legos or acting out scenes from Mario and Luigi with his plush character figures. At the end of each video, though he could barely pronounce the statement, he would yell with all the excitement he could muster, “IFYOUWANNASUSTIBE (If you want to subscribe)!” It still fills me with joy the way it did five years ago, crouching behind the camera in the kitchen. Though, I watch those videos now and tears come to my eyes…I think it’s regret for not recording more…or delaying the YouTube Channel launch. There was so much excitement in his voice, an excitement that seems to have taken a backseat to the 13-year-old esteem. I don’t want to believe that my little comedian is maturing…growing into a very responsible young man who wants to be taken seriously.

I wish I could freeze time and stop progress on the cocoon he has begun building around himself. I ask myself repeatedly, is there something I should have done differently to prevent this strange phase of his metamorphosis. Thinking what I, myself, was like at 8 and 10 and 13. What kinds of things did I find amusing? When did I start wanting to be taken so seriously? Have I become who I was born to be? I know…I always take everything too far. Am I setting too serious of an example of adulthood? Am I over-parenting? Is that a thing?

My hope is only that when he emerges again, he will be something altogether beautiful, ready for flight. Stepping outside of the frame, I can see Landen rounding out very nicely as a young man. I will have to wait to see how his humor gene manifests on the other side of this transformation.