When did this happen?
I wasn't ready for this. It snuck up on me out of nowhere and slapped my oblivious face.
Halloween found us gathering at grandma's, as usual, to prep for a night out in *THE* neighborhood of the town. Her neighborhood. It's insane. Truly insane. And we love it. We set out for the evening and by the time we hit about 4-5 houses, we stumbled across a gang of C's buddies. This little pack of 11-12 year old boys out wandering the roads on their own. Giddy with freedom, friendship, and sugar. "Mama E!!" (this is what they call me now... Mama LastName. My newest moniker.) "Mama E! Can C come with us tonight?" and the ring leader adds, "We're having a party at my house afterwards. You can go talk to my mom if you want." So, I do ... I wander the next few houses up and talk to one of his two moms. She assures me the boys will be fine and she'll fill them up with hot dogs and deliver him home by 10:00. And that was that. He was gone off, in a flash, running down the street with his pals. And I was left standing there with only 2 little trick or treaters and wondering how this day had caught up to me so quickly. I knew it was coming. I just didn't realize it would happen now.
We saw him again a couple of times over the course of the night. Once at the highlight house of the evening. The one everyone heads to. The psycho who fills 6 yards with blow-up decorations, runs additional electrical lines in his house to support them, hands out hundreds of dollars in candy, brings people in from other towns to see the insanity. We saw C there entering into the haunted house. Sometimes, peer pressure can be a good thing. Two weekends ago, we left him alone, outside the ride-through haunted house at the country fair while we went inside with the two little folks. He was too scared to go in. Last night, he ventured into the walk-through with his buddies. Courage suddenly fueled by the presence of friends. When I saw him heading that way, I thought for sure he'd refuse to enter. Nope. In he went. We saw him again, rolling past us on the street, riding in the back of a hay ride. "Hey, my people!!" he yelled at us as he passed, arms flailing to get our attention. And, as promised, they returned him home by 10pm, filled with excitement and tales of pranking friends, jumping on trampolines, and eating junk food. What a sweet, tiny window to be in. These few tiny years where he gets to begin to experience that independence with his friends and I don't yet have to worry myself sick with what they might be getting into. When the worst thing he may do is puke up a couple of hotdogs from jumping too fiercely on a trampoline after stuffing his face. Haha. It'll fly by in the blink of an eye. And before I know it, I'll be worrying about far bigger things than whether or not he'll be brave enough to go into a haunted house with his buddies.
And his birthday. I didn't post about it yet. Last weekend he had buddies over - many of the same ones from this halloween-wandering pack - to spend the night for his birthday. They roasted s'mores, watched a scary movie ("Signs"), played video games, and talked about girls. Today, he spent all his saved birthday money at the Apple store. He's the proud owner of an iPod Touch. It's basically an iPhone without the phone capabilities. He's in hog heaven and anxious to get it loaded up with all of his favorite goodies.
Annie rehearsals today. Church and (Unitarian) scouts tomorrow. November is here and the birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas chaos is about to ensue. Oh - and let us not forget that pesky little presidential election coming up on Tuesday. More on that to come. :)
Halloween found us gathering at grandma's, as usual, to prep for a night out in *THE* neighborhood of the town. Her neighborhood. It's insane. Truly insane. And we love it. We set out for the evening and by the time we hit about 4-5 houses, we stumbled across a gang of C's buddies. This little pack of 11-12 year old boys out wandering the roads on their own. Giddy with freedom, friendship, and sugar. "Mama E!!" (this is what they call me now... Mama LastName. My newest moniker.) "Mama E! Can C come with us tonight?" and the ring leader adds, "We're having a party at my house afterwards. You can go talk to my mom if you want." So, I do ... I wander the next few houses up and talk to one of his two moms. She assures me the boys will be fine and she'll fill them up with hot dogs and deliver him home by 10:00. And that was that. He was gone off, in a flash, running down the street with his pals. And I was left standing there with only 2 little trick or treaters and wondering how this day had caught up to me so quickly. I knew it was coming. I just didn't realize it would happen now.
We saw him again a couple of times over the course of the night. Once at the highlight house of the evening. The one everyone heads to. The psycho who fills 6 yards with blow-up decorations, runs additional electrical lines in his house to support them, hands out hundreds of dollars in candy, brings people in from other towns to see the insanity. We saw C there entering into the haunted house. Sometimes, peer pressure can be a good thing. Two weekends ago, we left him alone, outside the ride-through haunted house at the country fair while we went inside with the two little folks. He was too scared to go in. Last night, he ventured into the walk-through with his buddies. Courage suddenly fueled by the presence of friends. When I saw him heading that way, I thought for sure he'd refuse to enter. Nope. In he went. We saw him again, rolling past us on the street, riding in the back of a hay ride. "Hey, my people!!" he yelled at us as he passed, arms flailing to get our attention. And, as promised, they returned him home by 10pm, filled with excitement and tales of pranking friends, jumping on trampolines, and eating junk food. What a sweet, tiny window to be in. These few tiny years where he gets to begin to experience that independence with his friends and I don't yet have to worry myself sick with what they might be getting into. When the worst thing he may do is puke up a couple of hotdogs from jumping too fiercely on a trampoline after stuffing his face. Haha. It'll fly by in the blink of an eye. And before I know it, I'll be worrying about far bigger things than whether or not he'll be brave enough to go into a haunted house with his buddies.
And his birthday. I didn't post about it yet. Last weekend he had buddies over - many of the same ones from this halloween-wandering pack - to spend the night for his birthday. They roasted s'mores, watched a scary movie ("Signs"), played video games, and talked about girls. Today, he spent all his saved birthday money at the Apple store. He's the proud owner of an iPod Touch. It's basically an iPhone without the phone capabilities. He's in hog heaven and anxious to get it loaded up with all of his favorite goodies.
Annie rehearsals today. Church and (Unitarian) scouts tomorrow. November is here and the birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas chaos is about to ensue. Oh - and let us not forget that pesky little presidential election coming up on Tuesday. More on that to come. :)