Multicolored Checkered Vans

A few minutes ago I saw my son's shoes laying, of course, in the middle of the living room floor. These were the shoes he begged everyone for at Christmastime, the Vans skater shoes, size 9, black and white checkered but with cute multicolored checks in there too, just for fun. Kev wore these shoes all the time, everywhere, except for lawn mowing and rainy, muddy days. On his birthday in March he asked for Mr. Clean Erasers so he could keep the soles of his Vans clean. So I was kind of surprised to see them abandoned in the middle of my living room floor.

In the past several months of his eighth grade career, Kevin has turned from a black hoodie-wearing punk-rock-looking kid into something far more interesting. He doesn't try to spike his hair into mohawks any more, instead letting it grow out in a halo of blonde natural curls that he literally wets down and shakes out until it falls into his eyes in the mornings. He's discovered a wide array of wardrobe colors besides the black and he no longer drapes his pockets with chains every day. In one short year he's grown twelve inches in height, now looking me straight in the eyes with a twinkle in his own that says this is only a brief pitstop on his way to Six Feet Tallville. And the other day I had to buy him a new pair of shoes since his beloved Vans were getting just a little too tight for him, he said.

A few minutes ago, I put my feet into those too tight Vans and walked around. There was a gulf inside those shoes that my own feet wouldn't fill. I kicked the shoes off easily and watched them fall in a heap, one laying on its side up against the other. They will stay where I left them until Kev puts them away in his own room. But I can't get over that his outgrown shoes are too big for my feet. It feels like a sign of things to come as my 13 year old boy finishes middle school at the end of next month.