They grow up too fast

Time passes by much too quickly. My oldest son is married and living in another state. I only have Bryan left at home and even he is growing up too fast.
The other day, Brad was passing by his room. He glanced in and Bryan, not knowing his dad was looking in, was busy studying the peach fuzz on his upper lip in the mirror. “Wow,” he said, “This bad boy is really coming in.”
--My baby isn’t a baby anymore.

It was only a few days upon returning back to school after a twelve day stay at the hospital with my son Bryan that I received a phone call at work from my husband, Brad.
From his voice, I could tell he was near panic. He said he had just gotten a call from Bryan’s teacher. Evidently, while Bryan was absent, notes were sent home and that that day was the day our son, Bryan was supposed to go to the maturation program at school.
Not fully comprehending the big fuss, I told him it wasn’t a problem. I would be off in plenty of time to make it to the meeting. Brad was suspiciously relieved when he said, “Oh good. So, you’ll take him then?” It caught my attention. I suddenly realized… “Wait, isn’t that for fathers and sons?” I asked. After an impossibly long wait, I knew I had my answer before Brad quietly said, “It doesn’t have to be.” “Oh, but I think it does, Brad.” I laughed. Obviously Brad wasn’t all that anxious to attend the big event. After some grumbling about embarrassing moments and something about Bryan being way to young to hear this kind of stuff, he was finally on his not-so-happy way.
At the agreed time, off my incredibly brave and oh so bashful husband went to the elementary school to meet up with our son. Neither of us had had any previous chance to discuss the “special talk” Bryan was about to have or answer any questions this meeting was going conjure up for him.
Our home has always had an open door, open communication policy but Brad’s vocal chords seem to tighten up a bit with topics of the personal variety. This was to be quite an experience for both of them. We both wished we had had time to prepare Bryan a tad bit, because he was about to get the shock of his life.
At the school, Brad met up with Bryan and all he had time to say was, “Hey Bry, we’re going to learn some things today that might seem confusing and surprising to you so when we get home, we’ll answer any questions you might have, okay son?”
At the meeting, the speaker stood up. Brad immediately slunked down in his chair. Bryan looked up as the speaker began, “You boys have probably heard rumors about this day. You may have heard that today is labeled “Dooms Day” or “Death Day”- -
Brad turned to look at Bryan. His eyes were huge and he had a look of sheer terror on his face. “Are you alright, son?” he asked. Bryan turned and looked at his dad before he slowly leaned over and whispered, “Dad, the Holy Ghost is telling me we gotta get out of here.”

When they arrived home, Bryan ran into the room. I felt I needed to put a spiritual perspective on the whole thing. “So, Bryan what did you learn?” I asked.
“Well,’ he said with excitement in his voice, “They gave me this and told me I ought to use it. Want some?” He proudly showed me the shiny red bottle of deodorant in the sample size container. “Uh, no thanks. I have some.” I smiled. “Did you learn anything else?”
“Well, I should probably use it after I shower because I probably already smell. I ran pretty hard at recess and worked up a good sweat. So it won’t work as good right now”
“Super,” I nodded. “Good idea. Anything else?”
“Yeah, that boys and girls have different body parts, but I already knew that.” He shrugged that little piece of information off before he turned his attention back to the small bottle and said, “ I’m gonna go put some of this on right now. I think it smells kinda cool.” Off he ran, only to return seconds later, shirt off, and with his arms raised high in the air. “Want to smell it?”

Brad walked into the room and announced he had a huge headache.

Needless to say, the big discovery of the day was cool smelling deodorant. All the awkward questions will surely follow but for now we’ll just enjoy Bryan’s innocence and the deodorant for as long as we can.