Hormones?

My hubby and I are experiencing something new.  Hormones.  No, not our own hormones, although that deserves its own blog post.  Nope, we're talking about the preteen, I-can't-believe-the-whole-world-is-against-me angst of my oldest boy, who at this point is less than a month away from entering middle school.

Yeah, there's this whole thing about drama that the teachers talked about at orientation back in May.  Wha??

Really, I didn't even know this was a "thing" until I started experiencing my sweet baby boy morphing into an inconsolable ball of tears and sulking because I'm not interested in what he has to say when I've told him three times to go and brush his teeth already.  It doesn't even have to be that!  I could look at him funny, and he'll burst into tears.

Over virtually nothing.

Why don't parenting books warn you about this crap??  I mean it seems a pretty significant chapter to sort of, oh I don't know, leave out altogether?!?!

Lately, nothing his little brother does is right.  He doesn't even BREATHE right, for Pete's sake!  Poor kid.  His big bro seems to get irritated by the slightest thing he does anymore, and when that happens, y'all better watch out!  He's fixing to unleash some delusional sass that's going to get his backside wore out!

OK.  *deep breath*  Reeling in my southern charm here a little.  I'm not really going to whoop his behind for being an emotional mess, but it does leave me looking at him with my head cocked to the side on the odd occasion.

Huh??  What??  Why are you crying now???

I kind of expected this from girls.  I was a preteen girl once, albeit a long, long time ago, and I'm sure the emotional outbursts drove my own parents up the wall.  But boys??

So we're going to have to see what this middle school gig brings our way.  I'm looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time.  Along with the hormones, we're going to have to contend with the drama that the girls he does go to school with dish out.

Our baby boy is growing up!  Seems like just a few short months ago that we brought his squirming little seven-pounds-and-change self home from the hospital.  *sniff*  Geez.

Not sure I'm ready for this... !!!

Middle School Night

Earlier this week, we visited Zeke's new middle school.  This is where he's going to be spending the next three years of his academic life, grades 6-8.  I was a little surprised at the sheer size of the school building.  It reminded me of when I went to visit my high school all those years ago and being made to feel really, really small.

We headed for the gym, where family and incoming students were gathering on the bleachers.  We sat through the principal's greeting and presentations made my the school counselors.  There's a lot of staff on hand, I guess because now we're talking about prepubescent "tweens" who come with their own set of drama.

Oh God...DRAMA!!  That's one thing I hadn't factored into the parenthood equation thingy.  No wonder they have TWO counselors on staff!!  *raising eyebrows*

As we walked into the gym, my son's friends called out to him to come sit with them.  Hubby and I let him go, and his little bro went along, too, because he knew some of them.  Hubby and I found seats near the back so we could keep an eye on them.  Minutes later, one of the girls in Zeke's class, a cute little thing who seems to have become good friends with my boy, bounded up the stairs to sit with them.

Oh, Hubby honed in on this in a heartbeat like a hungry fox who just spotted a fluffy white bunny digging in the carrot patch!  He's been known to give Zeke a hard time about the increase in female interest in the past year.  I'm trying to be the "good parent" so that he'll still come and tell Momma all the details, provided I swear not to tell Dad.

Good thing he's never made me show him my fingers crossed behind my back.  :-D  Every parent knows those details get shared.  Pffft!!

It was eye opening though, seeing him sitting with his little buddies.  They're getting ready to embark on a new chapter of their young lives.  And they seem so...young.  But they're not.  It's us parents that are having a hard time letting our babies go.

I wonder if maybe I'm the one that's not quite ready for this next step.  Pretty soon, it'll be high school and cars and college and jobs and women and grandbabies...not necessarily in that order, I understand, but we're gonna try.  Ha!

Yeah, this whole growing-up-in-the-blink-of-an-eye thing...that's gotta stop.  Just sayin'.