He's got the soul of a poet

Bugaboo is in the tween years.
Not only in years, but also in naivete.

He watches ESPN religiously, but will occasionally still flip on Cartoon Network.

He no longer has "toys", he has sports equipment or video games.

He knows all about sex, but doesn't quite get some of the nuances of more subtle "adult" things.

This last one brought us to his Language Arts assignment last night. His school requires a parent signature on all assignments and I have never been so glad of this policy as I was last night.

Here is the assignment BEFORE I signed it:

“Where I’m From”
I’m from the yelling
And screaming of younger siblings.
From the sizzling of pancakes on Sunday morning.
I’m from the ear-killing screech of the buzzer at the end of a basketball game

I’m from my mom’s chocolate sweet tooth.
From the delectable and juicy Italian meet ball from my grandma.
From the smell of lemons coming from my sisters bedroom.
I’m from the smell of cinnamon and spice coming from my mom’s magical kitchen.

I’m from the salt air coming from the sea near my house in *****.
From my grandpa’s New York accent.
I’m from the chill of my mom’s freezing childhood in Maryland.

I’m from my grandpa’s Irish heritage.
From my grandma’s Italian heritage.
I’m from my mom’s long history of tan skin (proud to say that I’m in first place!).

I’m from my family’s history of basketball.
From my dad’s golfing kingdom over at the Country Club.
From my dad’s anxiety to coach.
I’m from my new born talent of baseball.

I’m from my mom’s love of books.
From my dad’s love of hidden movies.
I’m from my mom’s reading with a flash light under the blanket.

I didn't comment initially at all. I just signed it and put it to the side. I waited for My Man to come home. And then I pounced.



I said I needed him to read this great poetry assignment Bugaboo had done for homework. My Man reads S-L-O-W-L-Y while moving his lips so lucky for me I could follow along. When he got to the second to last line........he started blushing and stuttering.........As I was cracking up!



I assured him I hadn't talked to Bugaboo yet so we went and got Bugaboo out of bed and told him he misspelled something, did he want to fix it and print a new one out? He agreed and while we were praising him and asking how he came up with all of this My Man slipped in........



Bugaboo, what does "hidden movies" mean? He said he couldn't think of anything good so he just made it up. We suggested maybe changing that to sports movies.

After I signed the G rated paper, I asked if I could send it to his grandparents as I thought they'd really enjoy it. He gave me permission to send it to anyone except a certain friend of ours who teases him un0mercifully.

That friend doesn't read my blog, but his wife sometimes does. I think I probably crossed the line posting it here.........but it was too good not to share.

Don't tell Bugaboo that I told you........

*Just to clarify: we never explained the whole hidden movies thing to him. I'll save that for another day. Maybe after the "tween" years are a fond memory.