My daughter is in love.
She's been 'going out' with this boy for almost 2 months now (which, as you may know if you've got teenagers of your own, is quite a long time!). They met over three years ago and have been friends the entire time, but his parents moved to a different school district shortly after that and they didn't get to see each other every day anymore. They did, however, keep in touch via the internet , phone calls and the occasional meeting, but there wasn't any spark of romance there that I could see.
Apparently the sparks flew when they and a whole bunch of other kids hung out together at the Homecoming football game, and by the time Shea came home that evening, Jake (not our Jake) was her boyfriend.
He's a nice boy. He has a job, a car that his folks gave him but that he has to maintain the insurance on and buy his own gasoline for, and he's very respectful to both Shea and myself. They talk either via the phone or online every day, and he's coming to meet us this week. I told him and Shea that I wouldn't let him take her out on a date until I'd met him - which I think is fair. He's nervous about meeting me, and I told him he was being silly; that he shouldn't be afraid of me "Shea's dad, though...that's a different matter". I was kidding, of course, and I told him so, but I think he's still scared to meet Dave.
I asked Shea yesterday if she loved him, and she said "I think so, yeah". I asked if he loved her, and she said that he tells her he does - and that hearing him say it makes her happy. This is her first boyfriend, and I told her that she's chosen well - he's reliable, responsible, respectful, and he loves her. I couldn't have chosen a nicer boy for her myself - and whilst I don't think that this is going to end in marriage or an unexpected pregnancy, it IS pretty cool to see Shea so happy. She's stepping into her adult shoes, and although they're a little big yet, I can see the day coming when she'll fill those shoes completely and she'll use them to walk out of our house and into the big-wide-world.
My baby girl is growing up fast.