Questions about professor friendship

Giselle

Alright, here is my deal: (I hope I am posting this in the proper place--since this isn't one of those "I am trying to get into my professor's pants" type things)

I am a 21/f, attending a small college in Texas. This past semester, I took a fun Spanish class. Since I want to actually learn the language, my instructor allowed me to hang out during his office hours and practice my Spanish (he would always complain in class that he had nothing to do during his office hours, and that he would show us a magic trick if we came--and he did!).

All in all, I thought we had a great professor-student relationship going on: We had a lot of things to discuss (in Spanish) like traveling, reading (a passion for both of us), magic tricks, which naturally extended to email (ex. I emailed him the location of a new Half Price that had opened up in town).

After the class ended, we continued to send short emails to each other every 2 or 3 days. Lately though, his emails have been shorter and less frequent. And, to be honest, nauseatingly grandfatherly. I have no idea how old he actually is (I would guess...early 30's?) but he is sounding like Mr. Rogers! I don't purport to be exceedingly mature for my age or anything like that but I also don't think that I need to be babysat either.

My questions are, is he bored with my emails? Too busy to write anything meaningful? Why would he bother responding with superficial-Sesame Street at all when he could just type, "I'll think about that, right now I am working on my dissertation"? Should I just kinda...sorta...stop replying to him or ask him what’s up? I realize that unequal positions of power in any sort of professor-student relationship prevent the formation of the types of friendships that I have with my peers. I’m leaning towards just dropping it altogether though, because I feel like I have a second dad.

Thanks for your input guys!