Thursday, August 15, 2013

A whole new Josh!

This summer Josh has been working on a transformation. He's 13 and we all remember what it was like to be 13. You're not really a kid anymore, but still kind of figuring out how to be a teenager. I've seen an amazing change in him this summer as he has made the change from kid to teenager.

Earlier this summer he was feeling kind of down and we talked about it and that's part of where the idea for running came from. Running did great things for me last year when I was struggling and I knew it could do great things for him too. He was feeling really stressed out about everything he has on his plate this year and I knew that running would help clear his head.

After the first false start when he quit because of his asthma, he gave it another try and he has totally taken off with it. He's up every morning on the treadmill or the elliptical and then some mornings he goes out and takes a bike ride afterwards. It has really helped his stress and his mood. I can tell a huge difference in him since he started exercising daily.

The next thing he decided to tackle was contacts. He's had glasses since he was about 8. He hasn't ever really minded them but he has noticed that recently a few of his friends have started wearing contacts and he decided to give it a try.

He got them last week and he's still learning how to get them in. It's hard at first and they're still driving him a little crazy. He's getting it though and likes not having to wear glasses anymore. By the time school starts I think he'll have it down.

Then we went clothes shopping. That kid is growing like a weed lately! Every time I turn around he has grown out of his clothes again. He recently started wearing men's sizes and it was kind of an adventure for both of us to figure out what size he is in men's clothes and start shopping in grown up stores instead of kid stores. This growing up stuff is complicated , lol.

The final piece of his transformation was his hair. The other day we looked at hairstyles on the internet and found one that totally works for his hair. The poor kid inherited my extremely thick hair and it's tricky to deal with. I have a stylist I've been going to for 12 years and several years ago I started sending Shawn and the boys there too. She's practically family at this point! So last night I texted her the pictures Josh and I had been looking at and she agreed that there was one that would totally work on him and today she cut his hair and showed him how to style it.

And then he came home and he officially looks like a whole different person! I can't believe how much he has changed this summer!! I took one look at him with his new hair today and grabbed my camera. I needed to document this change!

Here he is at the beginning of the summer:




And here he is now! :)



I think he's ready to head into 8th grade as a happy, confident teenager! I love that kid! :)


2 comments:

Unknown said...

oh wow, what a huge difference!! My 9 year old recently started growing out of the girls section and into the tweens, it's bittersweet how fast they grow up.

mbruce said...

Oh my gosh! He looks so different, but very handsome :).