The photo below melts my heart every time I see it. Zach and Grandpa making each other smile!
This next photo moves on to Zach's next phase..."Cousin Itt." This was an early pic...he let his hair grow for two more years much to my delight (not) but my pediatrician told me a wise saying around this time: "Choose your battles wisely when raising teens. A hair cut isn't one of them."
He has cleaned up pretty well...literally , mentally and physically.
Zach has been my easiest AND hardest child to raise. He was smarter than me by the time he was in second grade and ended up being my Genius child (that doesn't quite know how to use it.)
When he was about nine and we were doing pretty well financially and had terrific insurance; I decided to switch him to a male pediatrician. I remember our first visit like it was last week. We were in the little room waiting for the doctor and there was a really old map of the United States on the wall. It was just sectioned into territories...not states. The doctor had just come into the room and was washing his hands when trying to make small talk to make Zach feel more comfortable, I said "Look at this map...this small section is only marked "Indian Territory." Zach glanced over his shoulder at the map and calmly said "That's where they shoved all the Indians." Dr. Roberts first words to me were something along the lines of "He's pretty smart."
When Zach turned ten our Muslim neighbors moved in next door. Getting to know them was a wonderful experience and quickly put an end to my short but ignorant bias of Muslims after 911. The father worked for the FAA. They were from Sudan originally. They had four kids and the oldest was eight...he obviously knew how to get a birka (spelled it wrong but you get the point) off quickly! He was out washing his car one day. Zach sat out there talking to him for about thirty minutes then came back inside to play video games. I went out with a bag of trash and Karim was still in his driveway and we chatted. He remarked "Zach is one of the smartest kids I ever met. He just told me more about the Air Bus than even I knew." I laughed and told Karim "He also knows how to build a nuclear bomb but refuses to get a hair cut."
Zach can tell you more about history, economics, geography, religion and politics than anybody I ever met. We think there may have been a baby swap at the hospital but after twenty years, we're keeping him.
He has always been a rebel. (Wonder where he got THAT?)
I made the mistake of telling him he was smart when he was young...he always hated hearing it and tried to prove me wrong as a teen. He struggled and got side tracked. He made some mistakes but paid for them like a man.
I remember when he had his Cousin Itt look and refused to cut his hair, a young girl at the pool one summer day said "You'd be cute if you had your hair cut."
The next day he asked me to take him for a hair cut. I silently thanked The Lord and loaded him up in the car. I even stayed in the car and simply gave him money to get it cut. Thirty minutes later he walked out with liberty spikes that were about ten inches long. smh...
He kept it for a while, getting up at six AM to put the Elmer's glue in his spikes while his younger sister held the blow dryer.
That phase passed and somehow he passed his classes at school. My husband said to me one morning "If we can just get him out of high school the kid will be the next Bill Gates."
He got out of high school with a resounding silent ovation from the faculty but at least I got to see him walk across that stage and handed a diploma. I am proud of all three of my kids. They all caused me heart ache along the way but have given me thousands upon thousands of smiles and priceless memories on the journey.
Today is Zachary Tyler Cotton's 20th birthday!
Zach is WAY too much like me. Sometimes I think that's a good thing and sometimes I think it's a bad thing.
He is currently slaving away in the kitchen of the restaurant where I work...not an easy place to be. (I work for "Cray- Crays" as Massey calls them)
He has hung in there, been berated for mistakes and talked to at times horribly, which makes my heart hurt for him. It's tough working in a kitchen...especially when it is family owned and they actually GIVE a crap about their restaurant.
I love him twenty four seven. He lets me in return rub his cute little shaved head every once in a while.
He has bumbled and fumbled but he is my boy and no matter what I will be there for him.
That's what Momma's do!
Til next time...COTTON
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