Signs of the Times

Signs he isn't my baby boy any more:

*He is designing a tattoo for himself. He knows he can't get one while we are still "footing the bill", which puts it into the later-rather-than-sooner time frame for him, but he is 18 and about to launch into the big world of college and he wants a tat. So he is planning it all out. A cross, with a verse, over the span of his nice broad shoulders. (I would do it all for him in black sharpie, and for free. But he isn't amused for some reason.)

*He is worried about paying back his future college loans.(Join the club!)

*He cleaned and washed his car without us telling him to. (And found a pair of jeans he thought he had lost. Bonus!)

Just feels like signs of the times, that the day is growing closer when he will be away much more than he is with us. So I am preparing my heart...or trying to anyways. I don't want to hold him back, but I don't want to let go too much either. Kind of feeling my way through these emotions that this new stage of life is bringing to me.