Idol Mania Hits the Sena House!

When you're a mom with a 13-year-old boy, it can become harder and harder to find things in common. Sure, I go to Matt's baseball games and cheer him on, I chauffeur him from school to piano lessons to sports practices. I help quiz him on Spanish verbs before a big test.

But it's the little fun things we talked about when he was a kid that can get lost when a child hits the teens — and starts to prefer to share those little daily laughs with friends.

That's why it has been so much fun to get completely caught up in American Idol with Matt this season. "What will Danny sing tonight?" "Wow, isn't Adam amazing?" "Can you believe Allison is only 17?" "Would Adam do a better job than Axel Rose on 'Welcome to the Jungle?'" (I'd love to find out.)

How amazing it is that my teenage son plays The Who when he's hanging out in his room — like I once did. (Still a big fan.) That together we scoured the Web to find sheet music for the arrangement of "Mad World" that Adam sang on Idol? (Matt's now learning to play it on the piano and he's planning to make a CD for me for Mother's Day.)

How lucky am I that, every Tuesday and Wednesday night, Matt hurries to get his homework done so we can snuggle on the couch and watch something fun that has nothing to do with the economy, swine flu, war, politics or even that ever-present upcoming pop quiz in Spanish?

P.S. Go Adam! ;)