I received a letter from my son's school yesterday. When I saw that telltale envelope addressed "To the Parents of," my heart skipped a beat. I ran through a thousand scenarios in my mind - I was sure he had done something unforgivable. Then I remembered (from past experience) that the truly horrible offenses warrant a call from the principal.



Apparently, the yearbook staff this year has decided to offer parents the opportunity to purchase an ad in the yearbook with out 8th grader's baby picture in it. Hooray for us. I tossed the letter to the side for a while, then I started thinking about how fun it would be to surprise him with it at the end of the year. I pulled out his scrapbook.



As I pored over the pages of memories, I missed my little boy. He was so cute covered in cake on his first birthday, and when he first learned to ride his trike. How adorable he was pulling all the toilet paper off the roll! So many pictures, and just one ad. I narrowed the choices down to three.



My absolute favorite picture of him is a candid shot of him in a kiddie pool when he was about 10 months old, leaning over the side to retreive a runaway sailboat - dappled sunlight on the golden skin of his naked little tush. "This is the one!" I thought, pleased with my choice. This beautiful picture of my baby boy, guaranteed to evoke sighs of delight from all who view it. This was the one.

I was filling out the form when he busted me. I swear, the kid is like a panther when I'm doing something I don't want him to catch me at. He walked right up behind me and looked over my shoulder. "What's that?"

I frantically tried to cover it up, but he saw the pictures on the table.

"Mom," he said in a deadly calm voice, "WHAT are you doing with these pictures?"

I was a bit stunned by the threatening tone of his voice, and he recognized that opportunity to snatch the paper from my weakened grasp. His brow furrowed. His eyes widened. His skin paled.

"Oh. My. God. Tell me you haven't already done this, mom. Please, please tell me you haven't already done this."

He sat down with a thud.

"What is it? Is it the picture you don't like? We can pick a different picture, okay?"

I guess he hadn't really looked at the pictures, because when his eyes made contact with the priceless memory of his little naked butt, I thought he was going to faint.

Needless to say, I won't be using that picture for his yearbook dedication. In fact, there won't be a dedication at all. Apparently, he would be a complete laughingstock if his mother recognized her endless love for him for the whole middle school to see.

Okay, maybe I see his point.