Five

Happy 5th Birthday Gentry Bean!

I have to admit that I'm a little sad. Five seems really old to me. Like he's out of the little boy phase and into being just a boy.

But he's a cute boy. Little or not.




And he's excited to be five.



He woke up this morning and asked me if his voice was any deeper. And then made me measure him.

The voice was the same. But he did grow an inch and a half since last year, which thrilled him, naturally.

He had a Spongebob party on Sunday. It was his first real birthday party where there were more kids than adults. He loved every minute of it.
















And he got spoiled rotten. But he deserves it. He's a good kid.

A wild, funny, caring, energetic, sweet, lovable boy. A boy that keeps me on my toes, and says random things that make me laugh, and gives hugs without being asked and plays the "I love you more than..." game at least once a day. He's wise beyond his years, has an amazing memory, a contagious laugh, the worlds smallest teeth, and a sarcastic wit.

And he's 5!



I kinda can't believe it, actually.

Time seriously flies.

It's been an awesome five years. I hope he thinks so too!

My boy.





Happy birthday, buddy!

I hate you, flu. Even the 24 hour version of you.

We are now going on thirteen hours of no one throwing up.

Today is a vast vast improvement over yesterday!

Anyway, sometimes people want to hear funny things kids say, right? I mean didn't Art Linkletter have a whole show based on this premise? Ok then.

Friday night we went to the Dodger game. It was a late game. It didn't start till 7:40 which is exactly 20 minutes before Gentry's bedtime. And these games aren't short. Generally they last 3 hours or so. Which is exactly 2 hours and 59 minutes and 30 seconds longer than Gentry wants to sit still and watch a baseball game. Plus it was cold. He was hating life.

(That is all irrelevant information. I'm not sure why I shared it.)

All you really needed from that was 1) we were at a Dodger game, and 2) it was cold. Actually you really only need to know that it was cold. Oy.

Around the third inning he climbed onto (into?) my lap and I was rubbing his back. We had a little converstaion. It went like this.

ME: You have to sit here for the rest of the game, you're keeping me cozy.
HIM: why? Cause when you love someone it makes your heart warm?

(and I wanted to say "no, basically just because of your body heat" But, I thought it was a sweet little question so...)

ME: yep. Exactly.

HIM: I bet when you get married together with someone it feels like your heart is wearing a sweater.

ME: yeah, an itchy wool turtleneck.

Oh wait. I didn't say that. I think I said "You're the cutest little thing". And he is.

Then today the other boy had something to say. He was watching something on the cartoon network. I'll be completely honest and admit that I have no idea what it was. But a commercial came on...

HIM: I wish I was rich.
ME: Why, buddy?

HIM: Cause, that guy is rich and look at all those hot girls with him.
What the?

ME: And what do you want hot girls for? (and, also, where did you learn that phrase??)

HIM: Cause they're hot.

ME: Seriously? YOU'RE SIX!

punched

I've gotten so lazy about posting in this silly little blog that many times it has crossed my mind that I should probably just get rid of it. You see, I feel guilty when I don't take time to post and guiltier when I feel like my posts are second rate to all of the others I read. But then I went back and read some of the things I written about, and although they may not have been grammatically correct, witty, or even interesting it was nice to glance back at the months past and outings or occasions. And I figured that blogs are for you to connect with other people and they are a good way of staying up to date on the day to day lives of people (especially those you don't see often enough) but they are also a way to journal about things that you do, think, feel etc. And that's more for you (me) than anyone else. I haven't even had this thing for very long and yet it was still nice to recall McKays school award and when Gentry taught himself how to ride a bike and trips we have taken. I can only imagine how it'll be when I can look back at years past instead of months...

So it's staying. For me. I'm not going to feel bad if something is spelled wrong or sounds awkward. I'm just going to write.

(Here I go)

Apparently McKay got punched in the face at school on Monday. I didn't hear anything about it until bedtime last night when he casually said "so and so got expelled from school". It was a random comment, but I wasn't exactly shocked because this particular kid has been skating on thin ice all year. And yet I know his mom from all of the days of standing outside the classroom at the end of the school day. We aren't really friends. But we are friendly for sure. I like her very much and I know it tears her up when he gets into trouble. She struggles with his, um, lack of impulse control...but she tries SO hard and loves him to pieces. So my heart dropped when McKay shared the news. Anyway, I said "uh oh, what happened?"

"We were on the playground at recess yesterday and he wanted to play Star Wars but I didn't want to be the guy he wanted me to be so I said I wanted to play kickball instead but he didn't want me to so he punched me in the face instead."

Wait. What?

He told the story quickly but with a serious lack of emotion and I wasn't completely convinced that the he was telling the truth. (In all fairness on my part he's had some issues with the truth lately)

Anyway, long story short. The kid didn't get expelled, he got suspended. But the rest of the story was apparently 100% percent accurate. There were adult witnesses even.

Well, here's the thing. Kids are kids. Boys are boys. I get it, things happen. Especailly on the playground at school. But I went in to talk to McKays teacher after school today. It just seemed serious enough that I should probably say something to somebody. Right? I mean I at least wanted to know what happened. I really just wanted McKay to know that if he gets punched in the face I'm not going to just do nothingabout it. And I also wanted to know if he had maybe in some tiny way he had been asking for it.

I know that sounds bad. But, it crossed my mind. God knows that there are times when I'm actually surprised Gentry doesn't deck him (although, that's a two way street for sure).

And I was also a little irritated that I didn't hear anything about it until Tuesday night. I thought surely he would tell me right after school, or the office would call, or his teacher would mention something. Is that crazy?

So his teacher tells me that she wasn't on the yard and she didn't see it happen but from what she was told McKay didn't do anything to provoke the punch and the only reason that nobody mentioned it is because McKay didn't really seemed phased by it and they were busy dealing with the other kid.

Fair enough.

But here's the reason I'm even telling this story.

As I'm walking out of the classroom, the puncher and his mom were walking in. I smiled and said hi and she didn't look at me and didn't say a word. Just walked right past.

I'm not sure what that was all about. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Could she possibly be mad at me? Does she think McKay got her kid in trouble unfairly? A thousand things have run through my mind. None of them really make sense. Except maybe she feels badly about what happened and didn't know what to say to me. I can understand that. Except I'm overly neurotic. So my mind is whirling with all these other maybes that are ridiculous (funny how I know they are, I typed it, and yet I don't fully believe it). I keep thinking how there are always two sides to ever story and maybe her kid told a convincing version of his and maybe she thinks McKay should appologize. Or something. I dunno.

But I'm writing about this so that I can try to put it out of my head and go to bed and so that a year from now I can look back and laugh with punch-y's mom about how crazy the whole thing was.

Cause we'll still be friendly. This isn't a big deal. I'm over thinking it.

Right?