puberty already?

I think I may have caught a glimpse of an adolescent Oliver this past week at the beach.

We were sitting at the edge of the water; me mindlessly digging a hole for Oliver to plop in and Oliver halfheartedly rolling a ball around. He always seemed to roll it just out of my reach, causing somewhat awkward interactions with the folks to which the ball rolled. It was always a bit awkward because Oliver would stick his hands in his mouth and start swaying back and forth, shifting his weight from one foot to the other like some weird, not-very-coordinated marionette. This left the catchers of the ball doing all the interacting which they didn't want to do anyway because they were 83 years old and just trying to peacefully listen to the ocean.
However, one of these weird stiff conversations proved to be fruitful. After retrieving the ball for the 11th time a pretty, no beautiful girl asked Oliver ( in a lilting french accent) if he wanted to play ball with her, to which Oliver replied to by first stuffing his fist in his mouth and then secondly throwing the ball in the small puddle, like he was responding in some cave-man language. The pretty girl persevered though, and Oliver eventually came 'round to playing with her, albeit with a disinterested attitude that led to me making small talk with this beautiful girl from outside Montreal. It was a rather humiliating experience for me because Oliver's playmate was 21 years old, had perfect skin, hair that will never even think of turning grey and, well, a 21 year old's body, that's perfect. Awesome. Me, I had a zit come resurrect from 8th grade, hair that has been going grey since 21 and well, a 30 year old body post baby...still. And I repeat, awesome.
So the next day comes around. Pretty girl is still at the beach and today Oliver waves and smiles while floating in the water. But when the girl approaches he "hides" in my arms and starts nervously laughing. Poor boy, he is going to be the boy that hits the girl and then runs away; wanting her attention but not knowing what to do to get it, or if he gets it. Poor boy.