A Sudden Subtle Shift

I have two adult sons who have always looked much younger than their years. Both still have boyish faces, all their hair, athletic builds, and hobbies in adulthood that involve mountain hiking, biking, skiing and challenges, some of it alarming like avalanche training, and some more mundane like backpacking overnight in an ice storm at 13,000 feet. All fun.

Their youthful looks have served them over the years at work, where adversaries underestimate them and bosses are surprised at their maturity and backgrounds.

But recently I was acutely reminded that they are aging as they slide into their mid 40s. It happens. Still, I was stunned.

The older one now wears cheaters -- reading glasses. 

The younger one is bringing a pie to Thanksgiving -- 

not store-bought, but home baked.

Suddenly they are two middle-aged people who need glasses to read and who bake pies for a hostess treat. 

Where did my rugged adventurers go? When did they stop being improbable and goofy? Can I still call them "the boys" if they so obviously act middle aged? It caught me up short.

Age creeps up slowly as birthdays rush by. Sometimes little changes become markers for bigger transitions that you just weren't seeing. 

I wasn't prepared for these insignificant changes or for my reaction, but they seem like some kind of unsettling shift. I'm coping as best I can.