life's little pleasures

first, let me say that if you don't have grown children, you may not totally appreciate this post. but on the other hand, if you are in the process of "growing up" your family, take heed.....
i have 2 grown children....a daughter, almost 28 and a son, 24. i love them totally...i always have. being a single parent for almost all of their "growing up" years, there are things i never really thought would "stick"...things i didn't even take note of myself as being important. things i thought were just the kind of things that they would take for granted....sadly, now that my mom has been gone for almost a year, i can say there are too many of those things. but...back to the primary thought here.
with sons, i have found moreso than daughters, there are such different sets of challenges. my son, scott, has always been the quiet one. i learned a long time ago never to ask questions that can have one word responses...."how was your day?"..."fine"......how do you feel this morning?"
...."good"...."how did you do on the test?"...."ok" see what i mean? with girls, there is always the drama...but with boys....n.o.t.h.i.n.g. i have often said i would have to stick my arm down his throat and pull the words out to get a full sentence. that said, it absolutely thrills me to my toes even to this day when he calls me like he did today.....and like he and my daughter have both done on occasion before....to ask for my recipe for something i used to make when they were living at home. he is in charlotte, nc; my daughter is in mebane, nc....she, married, working and with a family....he moved when he started college and is now a firefighter with the charlotte fire dept. i still get one word answers when i mistakenly phrase the question wrong...instead of "how was your day?" you must say "tell me about your day today" or "what does your schedule look like for the next month?".....but on days like today, when he calls to ask how i fix stewed apples or like before when he wanted to know how to fix country style steak and gravy....or how to cook pork so it doesn't taste like a pig...or when my daughter calls and wants to know how to cook something in the crockpot i gave her...i know something "stuck" way back when. and i didn't even realize. when he comes home now, he watches how i cook things. when his pants need ironing, he does it without even asking me. when the tea needs to be poured up, he adds the sugar and just does it. he makes his bed when he leaves to go back to charlotte. when my daughter comes over, she comes into the kitchen and looks at my cookbooks or picks up something and helps me cook...just like i used to do with my mom. and both of them will sit for hours listening to my dad tell stories of when he was growing up...they so love to do that. and oh my....the boxes and boxes of old family pictures...and the questions they bring up! so....that's it....those little things that seemed to fall by the wayside so long ago when they were growing up....now....now i can see they really were paying attention. who knew stewed apples would be so important?...but today, a phone call from my boy about that very thing absolutely made my day. and i am wearing one of those goofy smiles now....because they grew up pretty dang good...if i do say so myself.