Sunscreen in my eyes

Today my youngest, Jack asked to go to the waterpark with a friend which is a normal summer occurrence for us.  It's close by and the kids are of an age where they get dropped off  (because nothing is less cool than having your mom hang out with you at the water park when you are 13 going on 17).   So we were packing Jack up and then something happened to unravel me.  He asked me to spray him with sunscreen.

Let me back up a teeny bit.  Jack is the youngest of my five kids. The older three are grown and have babies of their own and I've adapted to the notion that they are not little kids anymore. I don't like it but I've learned to accept and embrace their grownuphood.  And then there is Hank who is on the verge of his senior year and clearly has started his climb out of the nest, I only really have interaction when he wants to talk about his laundry or wants to go shopping. I am allowed to watch him play football but not to interfere much except take a picture after the game, before he is off with much cooler people than I. 

That's okay because there is one  guy left to hold this mom's heart together and he is Jack.  Jack was made for this job, he is sweet, funny and oh so patient with me and after all we still have ahundred four years of time left in childhood. He is  taking it for the team by spending time with me when all his older siblings are off having their own lives but seems to shoulder the responsibility with all the patience in the world. .   I once asked him what I was going to do with how fast he is growing up and his response was "I worry about it too, but, let's just take it one day at a time."   Which I was doing well until today.  He asked me to spray the sunscreen and, in my mind I was dealing with this child.

But in reality, I was spraying sunscreen on this kid.

He is a good 4 inches taller than I am and he is shaving. His voice is deep and he has muscles. And I don't know if it was the sudden realization of how grown up he is that brought me to tears or maybe it was just sunscreen got in my eyes.  He is off to the waterpark to talk to girls, walk around looking cool and eat lots of food with his buddy and I'm pretty sure he isn't thinking much about the ugly cry face I made as I resisted the urge to get my suit and join him. It's about 10 more seconds before these last two guys of mine are off into grownuphood along with those that went before them.  And then what will I do with all this sunscreen?