This time last year, my kids and husband decided to surprise me with a very nice birthday gift — a 3D printer. I have always loved creating things. Spending time in my craft room is a great stress relief. But looking at the size of the manual that went along with that 3D printer seemed like it would cause more stress than it would relieve!

I made the appropriate sounds of appreciation after receiving it, but I left the huge box sitting right where it was, taking up half as much space as my piano. My oldest kept asking when I was going to set it up — I normally am diving into my new toys. But, honestly, that one seemed rather daunting.

One evening, after walking around this box for weeks, I came home to find my sons and a cousin (mechanical engineer) had decided to set it up. It was the wee hours of the morning and they were still excitedly watching the machine print set-up blocks.

The next week around the table we seemed to be speaking a foreign language: TPU, ABS, PLA, PETG, dual extruders, rafts and brims, and much more. My cousin was using SolidWorks for his software, but I was too cheap to spend that kind of money. That’s when I made a call to my favorite computer geek cousin. He gave me three open source programs to try, and we ended up choosing FreeCAD. From the moment that program was downloaded, my son spent much of his extra time playing, designing and living in that program. Every once in a while, he’d ask for help, and all I could do was just shrug and say, “Ask your cousin when he gets home.”

Kids grow up fast. I’ve always known it — but now I feel it. My little boy has turned into a young adult this past year. Gone are the days of cuddles on the couch while I’m reading a story. Instead, now he’ll listen while he sits at the table with a pair of calipers designing some part or toy. He has been commissioned to design parts for a sailboat, our telehandler, and even a clip for a broken bikini top. He has done checkerboard pieces, and recently the kids wanted forks on their toy skid-steers — so he printed a mast that would accommodate any number of attachments and then printed the forks. When the kids start designing their own toys — that’s a win!

Earlier this year, while picking up hay in the stack truck, he decided he needed to build himself a phone holder that would hold up to farm life. Apparently he didn’t like throwing his phone in the plastic cup holder like the rest of us. So at the end of a long day, the rest of us with barely enough energy to shower before falling into bed, he’d be found at his desk measuring, designing and redesigning this phone holder. He’d take it out the next day with him, and that night he’d be back at his desk working out the bugs.

He’s growing up. He’s finding his own interests, his own hobbies. He’s taller than I am now — but he’s not the only one feeling growing pains. No matter how proud we are, it’s still an adjustment to be in their shadow when we have been their sun for so long. But a tree that doesn’t grow taller than you can’t provide shade. And my cousin once said (while pitching melons in the heat of the day) “When you’re working hard — shade makes one happy.”

So here’s to hoping both of my children grow tall and provide their community with shade.