Our grandson is 14 1/2 (remarkable to me as I remember the night he was born) and is a typical teenager, hooked into “his” kind of music almost constantly, doing things with his friends, busy with school and sports. Well, his sport is cross country, and the season just ended, but not before he proved himself a contender. He’s right up there, second or third in every race, even county, regional, or other large meets.

Because of cross, he has taken it upon himself to eat properly. He no longer drinks pop, ever, but “stays hydrated” with water. He reads labels on products at the store. He eats vegetables now, when before, he’d just as soon omit them from any plate of food. He makes himself salads. He knows to eat pasta before a meet.

His 11 year-old sister is impatient with his focus on healthy foods. Just listening to them in the car yesterday when I picked them up from school was funny.

“B., do you have to talk about food all the time?”

“I don’t talk about it all the time.”

“Yes you do. I mean, there are other things to talk about, you know. Who cares what the first ingredient in something is. I know I don’t.”

“Well, M., I need to eat right and exercise so I can stay in shape for running.”

“The season is over. What’s the big deal?”

And on and on until I changed the subject. It was good-natured banter, but neither was going to back down from his/her position.

Our granddaughter had an event to go to, so her mom picked her up at 5:30. Then it was just our grandson, my husband and me, so we asked him where he’d like to eat. He was quick in his answer, and we wound up at a local pizzeria which has extraordinarily delicious pizza. I was able to get something off the American menu, which was my preference. But the guys shared a large pizza.

As we ate, he played around with our smartphone, taking silly pictures of himself, grabbing a pic of me here and there, singing….

“Grandma, sometimes I’m all of a sudden singing and I don’t even realize it.”

He was happy and goofy and teenaged and we were all having a good time. Then, out of the blue, he looked at us and said, “I just love you guys so much.”

Now there’s a gift I could never put a price on.