Caden-6yr…. a far more delightful child than I am currently giving him credit for. Right now I’m just drained by the very six-year-old-ness of this lovely blue eyed boy. His talents include using a range of dramatic voices, endless facial expressions, superior acting skills, and right now he’s using them ALL against me just for the sheer pleasure of watching my shoulders droop in defeated tired mommyness.
Yes. I’m sure that’s what it is.
It’s all about me.
His being six.
Because that makes so much sense.
Today Caden-6yr launched a persuasive, dramatic plea for why he shouldn’t have to know how to spell his spelling words. It lasted one very long hour.
I gritted my teeth and explained the holes in his logic and decided to avoid thinking about how this might be some reaping/sowing crap about me not really thinking i needed to learn history for history class.
Yesterday I had three boys at Target and Caden-6yr was angling for a scarf. Caden-6yr likes accessories. Always has. But you know…? We live in Texas. It’s not really that cold THAT often, and his neck isn’t OVERLY tall and sticky-uppy and it’s probably fine. Not that my reason for not wanting him to have a scarf is that he isn’t a giraffe.
I explained my reason to him. We had just passed a mom with three pretty little girls. My three boys did that simultaneous head jerk thing in the direction of the three girls, which I chose to ignore rather than address with a “STOP IT, YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO LEER – AND ALWAYS WILL BE, NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT” lecture. (The alternative lecture might be “How to do that with some subtlety” but that just doesn’t seem right, either.) I just wasn’t up to taking on this particular reality right at that moment.
Instead I addressed the scarf issue. It was easier. “I don’t like to give you long pieces of fabric like scarves or robe-ties. It’s just asking for trouble. You swing off the ceiling fans like Tarzan, you tie each other up like calves, or you make tourniquets and endanger the existence of your limbs.”
Behind me, there was a gasp. It wasn’t from any of the boys. They weren’t listening to me. I turned. It was the mother of the three pretty little girls and apparently SHE was listening and was horrified.
Yeah well, honey, three boys ago I would have been shocked and horrified, too. I smiled. And shrugged.
And then tonight… Caden-6yr magically turned adorable and charming again and made me want to kiss him and hug him and squish him he was so cute. Over dinner he said, “MOM. When we were in Seth-5yr’s closet, we found one of the very first dictionaries ever made.”
His voice was slow and dramatic and full of awe. Caden-6yr has a weird, intense love of all things archeological. And there had been a historic find of epic proportions in his little brother’s closet.
I agreed when he asked to be excused from dinner to go get it. It was important. Experts would be interested.
He came back with super-wide blue eyes and cradled it carefully in his hands.
A white book, with brightly colored letters on the front spelled out “Very First Dictionary.”
I hugged him. I kissed his little normal sized neck, and laughed into it, and explained that it meant it was a dictionary for a young child — not a claim that it was the very first dictionary ever printed.
Honest misunderstanding, though.
He seemed disappointed.
But it made my night. Six can be absolutely delightful. I just probably need to remember to notice it more.
I love you.
9:01 pm
Oh I love this. It reminds me of you when you were little and literal. Adorable. (PS – When he’s old enough for a scarf that will be used non-violently as a scarf, let me know. I’ll knit him one.)
4:58 pm
LaLa,
awww. thanks. turns out I may not be old enough for a scarf that will be used non-violently either. mom came over the other night and gave me one of those loopy ones that’s a big circle. she put it on me and told me it was my ‘training scarf.’
within five minutes, i’d bent over to get something out of a cabinet and nearly choked myself as i stood up because my training scarf was stuck on the cabinet knob.
9:35 pm
I’m still wondering about the three little girls at Target. Do boys this age already do the “head jerk”? Do girls that age no longer have cooties?
Now I feel tired, AND old!
8:22 am
Linda,
They were especially EXTRA cute girls, but I cannot judge if this is normal, current 2011-ish little boy behavior or not. I can only say that it’s WAY unfortunately normal for my three. It’s actually not so bad. Caden-18 month used to have a ‘lunge after and grab waitresses butts’ phase, so we’re pretty much fine with the current phase. Perspective.