Modern Maturity

Sorry it has taken me so long to write. I have been experiencing technical difficulties with my Internet connection from home, and this is the first night I have been able to get in (even so I am using my work computer, but since I am not technically at work (or literally at work, either) I don't feel so guilty.

Anyway, my folks came up this weekend. When they came into the house, Xavier threw himself into my father's arms and cried, "I've had enough caffeine already!"


We also had a Hallowe'en Party for a few of my kids' friends. Gwen had a whole list of kids she wanted to invite, but Xavier held out for one special person: Bob Wiley (of course, Bob's name -- like all others -- has been changed to protect the innocent.) There was only one difficulty; Xav knows his friend from daycare, I had no option to get his address except to ask the director of the daycare for it, and my kids had no interest in inviting the director's kids (Gwen has an on-again, off-again friendship with the director's older son, and I guess it was "off" at this time.) Luckily, the director opted for a vacation two weeks before the party, so I asked her assistant when I went to pick up the kids one day, "Could I get Bob Wiley's address?"

"Do you mean, 'Bob Riley'?" she asked. She gave me Bob's address anyway, an invitation was sent, and peace was restored to the land. Still, he will always be 'Bob Wiley' in our hearts.

Anyway, I had never met Bob before, but when he showed up for the party, I admit I was a little surprised. Xavier is -- admittedly -- a tad petite for an almost-four-year-old, but I had kind of envisoned Bob as being a cute little ragamuffin like my boy. Instead, it turns out Bob is five, and a very tall and stocky five at that. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that Bob shaves, but he definitely looked the part of the gladiator he was dressed as. Xavier does not come past his shoulders. Still, when Xavier returned to school on Monday (after being out all of last week), Bob and he immediately scampered off together, leaving Adam at the door. I guess Xav is more mature than we thought.


On a less mature front, Xav came downstairs this morning after I had left and asked Adam, "Where's Mommy?"

"Mommy went to work, son."

Xavier's face collapsed like he was going to throw a fit. He curled his little hand into a fist and swung it down as he stomped on the floor, raging, "But I wanted to say good-bye!"


Meanwhile, we also returned to karate on Monday, but I would not allow Xav to participate, since he had already been through the excitement of returning to school. Gwen also wanted to be excused ("But I have a cough!") Once she saw the Instructor, however, she couldn't wait to get started. Unfortunately, the Instructor was a little under the weather himself, so he delegated the Pee Wee class to his young, college-aged (male) assistant. Now, in a normal Pee Wee class, Gwen likes doing the moves, but she looks to me continually for approval. If she coughs, she wants a drink. But with the assistant instructor teaching her, I might as well have left -- she was completely unaware of my presence, and when she coughed, she told the young instructor she was fine, let's continue. It might be that he has a knack for this, but I really think his teaching skill had little to do with her dedicated interest.

Along a similar line, I took her to the doctor today for a flu shot. When I returned her to school, one of her boy friends who lives across the street from us, came running up (just having returned from the bathroom, evidently, because he was zipping his pants.) He greeted her boisterously, then turned to me and said, "Miranda's Mom, I can't wait for Miranda to come to my house for a sleepover."

Sleepover with boys? Sorry, I'm just not ready (or mature enough) for that.