While the birds and bees are busy buzzing around the countryside reminding us all of springtime flings hither and yon, I am drawn to listen carefully to conversations about kissing and puberty and other such exciting topics for mothers to eavesdrop in on.  Nature is not the only expression of growing up and falling in love.  Apparently, children also do grow up too.

How sad, and yet, oh how necessary!

This little story made me laugh, but yet still want to cry at the same time.   The other day, it happened that a few of our kindergartners and Grade 1 students were found kissing each other outside during second recess.  I felt it necessary to drive home a valuable and totally worthwhile lesson to my own class of kindergarten students on how kissing is inappropriate for kindergartners or any school-aged child, for that matter, to be doing on the playground.  The minute you think you’ve nailed it, and done a bang-up job telling them what’s what, one little girl pipes up, “Mrs. Gard, I know who has a crush on your daughter Sarah!!!”  Talk about killing me softly.  My daughter is in Grade 2!  I am not ready for boyfriends…kissing kindergartners is enough to throw me over the brink!  Let alone my own daughter possibly having a secret admirer.

And then there is my son who has been making many references to his own swiftly approaching  pubescence.  How did this come upon me so quickly?  It seemed that it was always far off, in the distant future. And here we are. While on our way home in the van from Huntley’s, a local greasy spoon not far from our house, our oldest informed us that he had learned via a health lesson at school that he is soon hitting puberty and thus now needs a bigger bike.

I guess puberty’s going to be expensive.

We are still getting lots of mileage out of the “puberty” card even days after that little conversation.  Last night, it was a very hot evening.  As the children went to bed, a fight broke out over who would get to take our one fan into their bedroom to cool things down.  Son told his sisters that boys sweat more, and since he was hitting puberty soon, he should be the one to have the fan this particular night in his bedroom.

I don’t ever remember being so excited or vocal about the life change when I was his age….

And so, even as the June bugs hit our windows with a loud smack, I must remember that there is romance in everything.  Birds, bees and pre-pubescent boys who use puberty as leverage- all are tender expressions of the changing seasons of life, each in their own unique way!

Nature’s wonderful magic at work in the hearts and minds of animals and human-folk alike.