Monday, March 11, 2013

Secretly Jumping for Joy

My third little robin will be graduating soon. When I say, my three kiddos couldn't be more different, it's not an exaggeration. There is such an age gap between the first two and the third, it's like having two different families. Basically he's been an only child, which I feel bad about. But hey, I needed that much time to recoup from having the first two before I ventured into pregnancy again. His demeanor makes for a good third child, in fact maybe too good. I don't think I've had to be on my toes as much with him as the first two. A few years ago he wanted to grow his hair long. We went through this with robin #2, but it worked out really well. When his hair grew out it grew in perfectly formed black ringlets. It was totally unfair a boy should have such hair and my daughter and I were just a tad jealous because of it. Unfortunately, although robin #3 has an overload of the Patterson gene, he didn't get the curl gene so his hair grew straight. To top it off, he wanted to dye it black. So this is my parenting view.... If growing his hair long and dying it black is the worst thing he does as a teenager, I still
have it made in the shade with a big glass of lemonade. I haven't hassled him about his hair, but make no mistake he was well aware of my... Not as thrilled as I could be about it, but for the most part I kept my lips zipped and rolled my eyes a lot when he wasn't looking. I don't have anything against long hair as long as the long hair has a style. He refused to let my hairdresser cut it into some sort of style besides the "Long just because I can grow it long" style. 99.9% of the time you can't even see he has hair because he wears a toboggan 24/7.... And I mean 24/7 as in all winter.... All summer even if it's 116 degrees outside he has a knit toboggan on... Well, let me just say, now I understand why my Mom hated the baseball caps and cowboy hats my brother always wore. The hair thing/toboggan thing didn't phase his dad. I swear if I have to hear the story one more time about how much longer his hair was back in the 70's, I'll puke up my toenails up through my nose. Apples and oranges, I told him, apples and oranges, this isn't the 70's and I'm not your mother. Every time the subject would come up, his lips would be moving but all I could hear was blah, blah, blah. Robin #3 spent the night with a friend Friday and Saturday morning when I got up I had a text from him he had sent late Friday night... "Would you be mad if I cut my hair off tonight." Seriously? He ask me now.... After wedding pictures, family pictures, senior pictures have all been forever frozen in photographic history? When he got home Saturday I poked my head in his room. He was sitting on his bed with his tobaggan on his head. He reached up and pulled the toboggan off  and smiled. There he was... My little robin #3, just as cute as he was when he was 3... His feathers neatly cut. I had to shut the door really fast before a smile ruined my.... "I couldn't care less look" Outside in the hallway I was doing the Gangnam style/Harlem Shake all rolled into one happy mamma dance. He has eyes... Thank God, he has eyes. And a smile... I saw him smile.... Maybe, just maybe, I'm not a parenting failure at all!!!  On the outside I was cool as a cucumber as I skipped (yes skipped) down the stairs, but on the inside I was secretly jumping for joy.

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