I was always a pretty good student growing up. I absorbed information pretty well, so when it came to reproducing it as answers on a quiz, or better yet, an essay, I enjoyed the thrill of the challenge. (A bit dorky, I guess.) I never felt that stereotypical dread that others felt. No lurch of the heart, drop in my stomach. Until tonight, that is.
It began with a passing comment, "Hailey and I told some of the kids at choir." Honestly, I don't know if he had said something leading up to this or if this was the beginning of it. "What?" I asked. "I can't tell you," he replied, with a kid-like mysteriousness. I, like most people faced with a pop quiz, offered a brief prayer.
Now I know it's a bit dramatic, but I fast forwarded life about 10 years. I felt like this conversation could set up a lifetime of conversations that I have hoped would be open. Conversations where I would keep my cool and he would calmly share whatever teenage burdens he was carrying at the time. I also figured that, most likely, tonight we were talking about the big K word.
While Ryan and I were both involved in the conversation, we had not prepped for this and we were not aware of the rules in this pop quiz. Is it open book? Can we collaborate on our approach? To us it seemed like it was shoot from the hip, so that's what we did. With a few leading questions we understood that something had happened in the tree house at her grandma's house when we were there for dinner last week. We also understood that "Ashton knows. She was kind of involved" (emphasis added). Although, judging from the blank look on Ashton's face, she did not know she was involved. We knew that they had locked the treehouse door and did NOT want her older brother to know about it. However, he was still unwilling to tell us the details.
When we asked, do you want us to know, he told us it was really just for kids to know. I told him we were both kids once, but that didn't seem to impress him. So we went the humor approach. Did you bake cookies? A cake? Finally Ryan go to the meat of the issue. Did it involve your lips? Well, kind of.
Now we were a bit confused, but persisted until he was ready to spill the beans. Ashton was supposed to whisper it to Daddy while Reed whispered it to me, so I was really getting a scoop. Well...
We don't believe the ceremony was binding, and apparently there were no rings exchanged, and the kiss was only on the cheek! Thank goodness! And he has no intentions of moving out or getting a job, so it appears our little boy will be with us just a few more years!
However, we know he is little only right now. Tomorrow will be another story.
And we will have to really study up for the next time.
