When Gaddyn was over this weekend my son very much wanted to be involved. Gaddyn’s older and confident. She’s friendly and bubbly in personality. He was looking forward to her being here for the sleepover just as much as my daughter was.
The children were excited and counting down the minutes before Gaddyn arrived. My daughter was bouncing around while my son disappeared into the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later and I noticed his hair was mildly wet. I looked at him and realized he’d wet his hair with his hands and slicked it down from its typical unruly mess. My son was trying to make a good impression. And that’s unheard of.
Gaddyn arrived and they had a fun day and evening. There was some disagreements about if my son would be sleeping with them in the bonus room in his sleeping bag too. He was being bossy and forceful and even physical in his misguided efforts to be liked while trying to impress Gaddyn at the same time. Most of his behavior wasn’t settling well with the girls although they eventually said it would be okay for him to join the sleepover after we’d given him a bit of time away from them so he could calm his energy down.
Gaddyn has a cell phone. She kept in touch with me as needed during the two days she was here. Shortly after they had settled into the bonus room with the lights out she messaged me, “your son just used the ’s’ word” followed by, “and he’s playing a video game.” I told her I’d address the language with him in the morning (not wanting to correct him in front of the girls). Then I told her I’d come up casually to check on everyone to see how they were doing since he was on his switch and shouldn’t have been.
I snuck up and asked if anyone needed anything and, “oh, Greyson, you’re not suppose to be playing video games now” to which he sighed and handed it over without a complaint. I went back downstairs and sent Gaddyn, “remote high five” and she sent back, “good teamwork”.
I forgot to talk to my son about the language in the morning. He knows all the bad words and also knows they’re adult words he’s not allowed to say. I’m pretty sure he said it to be cool in front of Gaddyn. He never says them where we can hear him.
The Big Boy Update: My son is on borrowed time for screen time today. There were several simple, easy things he could have done to not only catch up but also earn extra screen time. Faced with the daunting task of cleaning his desk up (three minute job), putting the dishes up that were already unloaded and stacked ready on the counter (five minute job) and cleaning up his place from lunch (two minute job) he decided he would escape the house altogether to run errands with his father. He didn’t realize it, but the jobs would still be waiting for him when he got home still.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter is obsessed with “flip” clothing. This is the latest iteration of sequined sections on an item. The sequins when all pointing downwards show one picture and when flipped up, show a second picture. I got some bathing suits for her for our upcoming trip today and when I told her she said, “did you get me a flip bathing suit?” This is a ridiculous idea. Sequins on a bathing suit sound completely uncomfortable. And yet, she was right. One of the suits had an emoji face on it with different expressions for the up and down sequin positions.
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