Love

Love is in abundance at my house. Folks are twitter-pated all over the place. (remember Thumper in the movie Bambi? He called love the twitter-pates.)

Andy is on his third "girlfriend." If he were a girl, I could call him a hussy. But what do you call boys with numerous girlfriends? Now, three is not a large number, but he didn't have any girlfriends until this past July. That's what, 7 months ago. Three "women" in 7 months! He's a hussy! (Either that, or he's a really bad boyfriend! I'm going with the hussy aspect. I like it better!)

Now, his first girlfriend was nice, but she moved away. His second girlfriend was a friend and they decided they should be "girlfriendandboyfriend." She was our close neighbor and friends daughter. We spent a lot of time together. We adults teased each other about our children someday getting married, or dating, or fooling around. And then we learned that our children were already "dating." What!

To them, "dating" meant that they were "going together." Because, neither one could drive anywhere, they never went anywhere and, most importantly, they were never alone. In reality, I think their relationship simply was a way for them to define their friendship. I mean, after all, kids aren't allowed to have friends of the opposite sex, they have to be dating, or something.

Anyway, they decided mutually to break up. But, within a week, that Hussy, Andy, had a new girlfriend. They've been "dating" for 3 days now. But, I reminded my young hussy, (I mean son), that he can't really date until he has a real drivers license and not just his restricted.

And now, we are entering a new phase...Miss Kat has a boyfriend and therefore, is twitter-pated. A boy, THE boy, gave her a little stuffed teddy bear for Valentine's. She was pleased and mortified to show me her little bear. I know she likes this boy because she asked me if she could "go steady" with a boy. Of course, knowing how 5th grade romances go, I know that this means that it is OK for them to "like" each other. We ran into him at the bowling alley, and...and...he had to talk to ME...and she didn't want me to talk to HIM...and it was oh, so embarrassing.

I knew this was coming. Last week, during Parent-Teacher Conferences, her teacher told me that my daughter had discovered boys. Her teacher also told me that Miss Kat will walk up to this boy, gently poke him in the arm and then grin. I'm sure that being a 5th grade teacher for years, she's seen this over and over. Luckily, she recognizes the innocence in it and, as long as it isn't a problem, lets it go. Kat would be mortified if she knew that we adults recognized this, because, don't-cha-know, we adults are really stupid!

I find Kat's "mortification" entertaining. It shows both her growing maturity, and her immaturity. After all, she's 10-almost-11 years old and should still be somewhat immature. It shows that she's starting to try to figure out how these creatures we call men fit into our lives. I'm trying to not embarrass her, and to help her figure out how to act, and how to treat boys. Her excitement about getting a special valentine has fought with her embarrassment at getting a special valentine. It's a dilemma that she's going to have to work out for herself.

The "other" man in her life, her Daddy, isn't too impressed. He's not sure she should like boys. He's really not sure if he wants boys liking his daughter. I have a feeling that the next 10 years or so are going to be really interesting.