With the evaluation out of the way, I’m somewhat more relaxed now and able to have more conversations with LightChildren which are not some form of “You should be doing school because we are so far behind it will take multiple lifetimes to catch up.” Or some other such nonsense that comes out of my over-achieving mouth. They were far more reasonable and healthy about the whole thing. I really need to take more cues from them sometimes.
In any case, LightGirl has joined me at Curves. I was not certain I would welcome the imposition on “my” time at first. But I’ve come to enjoy the conversations we have in the car there and back again. I also enjoy seeing her take on more and more of herself in these venues. A recent car conversation was a little unsettling however. It began like this, “Mom, did you ever find out that a guy you’d had a crush on for ages was a jerk just about the time he started paying attention to you?” “Hmmm,” I responded, “I don’t really remember if that happened. If it did, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Why do you ask?” “Well … GoalieGuy was getting dressed in the hallway yesterday when we came out of our lockerroom. He put his hands on his pants and asked if anyone wanted to see his p****.” (and yes, she used the anatomically correct term, as apparently, did he) She was not entirely certain if this was funny or jerky behavior or a mixture of both. Neither was I. I told her she might want to give him a second chance because middle school guys are sometimes known to do weird and awkward things to get attention. She agreed with that. Later on I did suggest that she might want to begin to carry around a 6″ ruler. Then she could whip it out if he ever does that again and say something like, “Hey, I need to measure that. I’m doing some field testing for a homeschool biology class.” She thought that was pretty funny and might put an end to the jerky behavior.
Last night LightBoy and I stopped in at 31-derful Flavors to order the cake for his long delayed birthday party. It will happen this weekend. We were with LightHusband. He had to run along to pick LightGirl up at the rink, so it happened that LightBoy and I walked home from the ice cream store. It wasn’t far and it was a pleasant evening to stroll along with an ice cream cone. LightBoy picked the darkest chocolatiest ice cream they had. For those of you who know him IRL, he’s not a particularly neat eater. So he had a nice ring of chocolate around his mouth which prompted me to say, “Hey did you get any IN your mouth?” He giggled. And we walked on. Pretty soon he said, “Mom, I’ve got something for your ‘Strange Facts About Kids Book’.” “Oh yeah?” I replied. “Yeah … Kids walking along the street with ice cream around their mouths makes adults happy.” he said. “Oh … really,” I said, “but adults walking along the street with ice cream around their mouths …”  “… makes other adults nauseous.” he finished the sentence for me. “Don’t worry Mom. You have skin colored ice cream.” (well that was a HUGE relief … that and the fact that I have learned in the past year or so to eat my ice cream without making a mess, but don’t tell LightBoy). I very nearly fell out laughing, but of course, could not because … well … he was so serious about the whole thing.
This is a good age. Good conversations. Interesting conversations. Now if they would only stop bickering ….
