Meow...and the formation of young men

Yes, the kitty strikes again. Wils had to come with me to the VA last night to return a pager I accidentally took home with me. Several coworkers came to say hello to him and when he saw them he held up four fingers and announced "I'm four". After that he switched into kitty mode and would only meow. So, this cat is 4. One of the RNs asked him his name and he said "Meow". So she said, your name is meow? He said Meow. She said OK.

We've been going through a thing lately with Elijah. He is trying to be a big shot and thinks the way to do that is to be obnoxious. It's all too obvious that he is trying REALLY hard. Some of the behaviors are not BAD, per se, just more boisterous (boysterus?) than usual. We had a den meeting for his boy scout den at our house on Monday night. He and his fellow 8 year old males were rowdy and I was able to debrief with the other parents and was relieved to hear they are ALL acting like that, particularly since Christmas.

So here's an example. Keep in mind, this is Mr. Prim and Proper, the rule nazi, Mr. Won't Wear Underwear because someone might know. He was playing with this new Bionicles toy that he got from Gramma for his birthday (just too spoiled!) and it kind of shoots something out. When his friends left, he was still going on all 4 cyclinders and couldn't wait to tell me his news. "Guess what???" he said, "I was pointing this at Evan, and I shot it, and it accidentally got him in the NUTS!"

I almost fainted. I have NEVER heard him even REFER to that body part, much less as "nuts." When I told Gramma the story she wondered if he even knew what nuts were. I said yes, he does now, because apparently what happened was that Lij did shoot Evan, yes indeed in the nuts, and Evan doubled over and said "Hey! You shot me in the NUTS!"

These are 2nd graders.

What will the next 10 years bring???

I got another taste of that last night again. Without laying a lot of groundwork (it's not nearly as bad as you are going to imagine, but I need to protect their privacy), suffice it to say that I had reason to talk to Ben and Elijah both about what is and is not appropriate for little boys to look at. I explained that it's OK for boys to like to look at girls, but not girls without much clothes on (Lij's eyebrows went up lisciviously and he broke into a miniature leer). I said it's just fine to enjoy looking at girls in their clothes. His face fell. "Nah" he said "Why would i want to do THAT?"

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Ana passed her test for her very first belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is now a white belt. She enjoys it very much and is good at it. We had a bit of a tiff last night and she wrote me an awesome letter of apology. It was so good I thought someone else wrote it! In brief, what had happened was as we were leaving tae kwon do a car pulled up and it was her friend Isaac from Montessori. They haven't seen each other in 4 years! We recognized them immediately and they stopped their car to talk. However, Ana wouldn't talk--she hid behind me. I was livid. I didn't talk to her all the way home, and then left with the little boys to go to St Cloud to return that dang pager. When I got back she handed me the note. Actually, it was a contract that I was supposed to sign and return along with any comments. In those words--from her 9 year old head. Phrases included were "I was tired and hungry and I felt sweaty and just wasn't in the mood to see an old friend. I know that's not regular behavior and I try not to be shy and I will work on it." I loved the way she said 'just wasn't in the mood to see an old friend". Then there was this line at the top that said "To my mother, Tracy, whom I will forgive ONLY if she reads and signs this"

So mature, yet so girlish :)

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This past weekend in Wisconsin we got to see some other old friends and meet a new one. My cousin Katie, whom I used to babysit for, has a 1 year old baby, Grace. Katie, her husband Corey, Grace, and Katie's parents Craig and Mary Jo came over for Elijah's birthday--mostly so we could watch Grace and Zac together. Well worth the planning--they were a hoot. Grace has bright red hair and a great belly laugh. She is very friendly and would let us hold her. I could see I was watching Zac discover the joy of girls. I remember when Elijah did! Zac called her "baby" and wanted to pat her back. They talked to each other--I have it on video. When people were leaving the party, Zac was calling "See ya later!"

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Last but not least, I stopped at Barnes and Noble last night with Ben, Wil, and Zac as I needed to pick something up for school. The minute we walked in the door, Ben zoned in on a little black hardcover book about Abe Lincoln (famous quips and speeches). He started asking for it. My first thought was no way--this is not a kid book. I tried to steer him towards the kid's section, thinking the one he chose was beyond his abilities. I asked him if he could read it. "Yes," he said, opening the book, "Four score and seven years ago,........................"



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