Last week a friend invited Dexter over for a play date and that gave me the opportunity for some much needed alone time with my eldest. Well, he did have to share for a little while as we attended Rory's school egg hunt and then transferred Dexter from Papa's office to his play date, but when you live in a family like ours....having any time one-on-one with mama or papa counts for something. This boy of mine is changing so fast. And he is caught in a funny place between childhood and the teen years where the tears still come easily and hugs are still frequent...but so is eye-rolling and biting comments thrown over his shoulder when he doesn't appreciate our existence. All of that tension seems to dissipate whenever he gets some time alone with one of us, however. Then he is simply charming and silly, grateful and enthusiastic. You can see his little spirit being fed by the attention. He is a good sport of being the oldest of three most of the time, but those first four years of "lonely only" certainly made a lasting impression. For our day, we went out for breakfast and I did not say a word when he ordered hot chocolate with whipped cream and pancakes with whipped cream... I did not even say a word when he ate three bites of his pancakes and declared himself full. After Rory's egg hunt, I told him I would take him to do anything he wanted... and he chose an old standard: Video games at the library. Since turning 8 and being old enough to hang out in the "tween" side of the children's floor, the library is a frequent request. I suppose I could have fussed about it not being "quality time" as he zombie-d out in front of the screen and I browsed the shelves and picked out books, but we had spent the morning chatting at breakfast and it was not about spending time with him really... it was about valuing him, and the quickest way to Liam's heart is directly through video games.
After a couple of hours, we headed back home for leftover pizza and more video games. And after it was all said and done, he threw his arms around my middle and said, "Thank you for this day, Mama. I loved spending it with you." And that is enough to keep me tagging along for video game days until the day I die.
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WHO AM I?
I am Michelle: a wannabe hippie in love with a bonafide geek. We also spawned. I spend my days with our four wild, beautiful boy children and I overshare about our life online because I am a Millennial and that is what we do.
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