Wow, it's been a while since I've done this. But, here goes....
Today I had a funny experience. It was the kind that makes fathers cringe and makes mothers laugh and it happens to all of us. Walking home from school with our friends, Caroline and Nolan were walking together. As two 6-year-olds are prone to do, they play tag and run around and giggle. But today, when we got to the part where we cross the street and they go straight and we go left, Nolan says, "Bye Caroline!" Caroline replies "Bye Nolan!" Then Nolan says "Bye Cutie Pie!" and with her sweet as honey southern drawl she bats her long little eyelashes smiles and says "Bye!" using about 3 syllables to do it.
I'm not saying she's not said before she has a boyfriend, but this is the first time I've witnessed it. My thought, as if Charlie Brown was my inner monologue, was "good grief!"
This, after all, is my 6-year-old. She, with the light brown hair and blue eyes I always wanted, is said to be my mini-me and I think if she is, dear lord help us all! She is already smarter and prettier than I have ever been. The fact that she is slightly socially awkward, like me, is really her father's only ally.
Six. I keep thinking that in my head. What was I doing at six? Much like her I loved to read, ride my bike, play outside and similar things, but what about boys? Was I boy crazy at six? The simple answer is... probably. The more I think about it the more I remember. There were two boys in my class from Kindergarten through Third Grade when I was at Stanley Elementary before we moved to WV - Troy (aka Bubba) and Mark. I think everyone loved them both, but I know I did. They were best friends, did everything together and who knows, maybe they are still friends.
On the playground at recess, we would all play tag and if one of them was it and they caught me, they would kiss me on the cheek. And well, I was little and I sucked at running (still do), so I remember Mark was the first boy who ever kissed me on the cheek. In remembering that story I was thinking to myself, but I had to have been much older, surely. Well, if I only knew them from the ages of 5 to 9, and then you consider how old we were when we played those games on the playground and do a bit of math. Nope, I was 6. HOLY CRAP!
A little girl kissed a little boy on the playground the other day at Caroline's school. When she announced this to her father (and he had a small heart attack), she followed it by saying that she wasn't going to kiss a boy until she was at least 28. If she is her mother's mini-me as everyone says, her boy crazy years should start about 20 minutes ago.
I remember what I was like as a kid and boy crazy is one of the attributes I'm pretty sure I had down to a science. And while I'm not one of those horror stories I hear about in middle school now, I can still list off in pretty close to sequential order the boys I liked and when. Some liked me back, others didn't. A few broke my heart into a million pieces and some never even knew I existed. This is what I have to look forward to for her. I'm not sure her father will survive.
