Pre-teen Sweetness

11.22. 09

Mac reminds us regularly that he is a pre-teen, well he actually announces that he is a "teenager", but we remind him that there is no "teen" in ELEVEN. And in his silliness he becomes "eleventeen." But I never expected my little Maco at the very tender age of 11 to be so interested in those of the opposite sex. Geez- this is just WAAAAYYY to early for me! And the good or bad thing about it, depending when I am thinking about it, is that he LOVES to tell me about it!! :<) "Mom, she is so hot!!" or "Mom, my heart hurts." or "Mom, I want to ask ___ to go to the movies with me!" or "Mom, I'm going to put my arm around her!"

Enough, Enough, Enough I want to scream!! Stop and go back to being my little Maco, who played with little blue trains, could fit comfortably between us in our queen size bed, and made incredible shooting sounds while playing with his 3 inch action figures!!!!

Today was a milestone in Mac's life. He called a girl to ask her "out".

This isn't the first girl Mac has "fallen" for. He is a lover through and through. He has always been our little lover. He falls hard and gives his complete heart and soul. He is the sweetest!

He has been talking about Paige now for a couple months. He has openly told us how much he wants to call her. We had long conversations about how "we" feel about this and how he needs to wait. It's just too soon. He's too young. etc. But we also wanted to respect his feelings. So we talked about him earning this by stepping up and becoming more responsible with many aspects of his life- school, homework, picking up after himself, following through with chores etc. If we saw a pattern of improvement in these areas, he could call Paige and ask her if she wanted to go to the movies with some of her friends and some of his friends and him.

Yesterday he got his opportunity. After several failed attempts to reach her, he spoke to her mother. He was very polite and said all the right things. That was until she asked why he was calling Paige. This took him by surprise- he wasn't expecting this question. He looked at me in shock and panic. I whispered what to say and he did. (I feel like Cyrano de Bergerac!)

Not more than a half hour later the phone rang. I answered it by saying hello. The young voice on the other end said "HI". pause... nothing ... I said sweetly, Who is this? I hear, "Paige." -in a tone that implied "Who ELSE?" Not disrespectfully just simply.

I handed Mac the phone. Mac's first phone call to a girl lasted all of 15 seconds, if that. He said, Hi Paige. pause. Oh, OK. Bye."

Mac said that Paige told him she couldn't go because her grandmother was in town. She assumed he meant tonight and never asked a clarifying question. Mac was flustered by her statement because he hadn't planned for that scenario. So it didn't occur to him to say... Oh I was thinking of Wednesday when we are out of school for Thanksgiving break.

Poor guy! SO determined, SO ready, So excited. Now completely crushed!

I love him so very much. Wish I could fix this for him.

It is SOOOOOO very much harder to watch you children experience life's up and downs than going through them yourself the first time!