This is more or less a continuation of yesterday’s post. My oldest went to a party last night-a birthday party for a friend. I went to pick him up at 7, and it was funny to see him with girls. As a ‘girl’ myself, or rather as someone that used to be a girl, I could tell that one in particular had a bit of a crush on my son. The way she smiled at him, and then avoided making any sort of eye contact with me were two of my clues. And yet, when I was talking to C, I noticed her checking me out…seeing what sort of woman her crushes mom is. I suppose it is daunting for a young woman to meet her crushes first ‘lady.’ To see the type of woman that has raised the object of her affection, and it made me smile. My son was completely oblivious to this young lady’s affections, but I don’t think that will last long.

A, our eight year old, has had to write stories for school lately. This week he is to pretend he is a butterfly, and write about what he would do. He said if he was a girl butterfly, he would look for a nice boy butterfly, and they would be together with four babies. He then said that because they loved each other, they would have a new baby in the girl’s tummy. A, wrote this shortly after we told him that I have a baby in my tummy, and that around Christmas he would have a new brother or sister. This story was his way of telling us he was excited about the new baby. When I asked him if he would like a brother or sister, he took a moment and said: “A brother.”

“Why? Don’t you want a sister?” I asked him, surprised.

He smiled at me and answered, “If I have a brother, I will try to be nice to him. Sometimes C and J aren’t nice to me, but if I am nice to H and the new baby, they can learn.”

A part of me was sad, as I was reminded once again how much A craves attention from his older brothers, and how rarely he gets positive attention from them, and yet there was another part of me that was so proud of his observation. He was able to understand and process how he felt when his brothers were mean to him, and realize that MAYBE if they had a ‘good example’ of what it means to be a good brother, they might learn.

Every day these four little boys of mine do something to surprise me, something to remind me that being a stay at home mom IS important.