Parenting

Mark is staying home this semester as he is working and getting his health under control.  He is an officer in his fraternity.  They still want him, if remotely, and we agreed he could go to a retreat this weekend in Logan.  He got Friday off of work and went for the whole weekend.

He didn't know where he was going to stay while there.  He said maybe he'd sleep in his car.  I vetoed that pretty fast.  Adam made a deal with him that involved lawn mowing in exchange for hotel points.  

Saturday morning I went to the basement to tackle the laundry.  Mark usually does his laundry on Saturday and I assumed that I would do his too.  It was all done!  He hadn't even left it in the dryer.  He got up early Friday morning and did it before he left.  I don't think either of our other kids would have done that at that age.

It's the little things, you know?

We talked to him later in the morning.  He told us that he'd gone to Walmart to buy a swimsuit on Friday because the hotel had a pool and none of our children can ever see a body of water and not want to go in it.  He looked everywhere for a swimsuit and didn't find anything but one solitary suit on the clearance rack.  It was size 3X.  He bought it anyway.  He said the only way it would work was if he pulled the drawstring and crossed it and then tied it behind him.  

But the boy got to swim.

He said the suit was $5 and he had used it twice "so far" so he got his money's worth.

Minutes after we talked to him, he called again.  He'd been in a fender bender.  His fault.  

Mark has always been cute and sweet and unexpected.  He's also never really been what you'd call easy.

We talked him through all the things.  Since the damage was so minimal, he offered the other person that he'd pay for the damage rather than go through insurance.  We'll see what happens.

I told Adam that as parents, this is what we'd signed up for.

He said, "We should have read the fine print."

Was there fine print?  I don't know.  Being a parent is a wild ride.  It's hard and I think it will eventually make Christians out of us.  We may even get patient.

Still.

I wouldn't trade it.

Yesterday Adam was at church meetings all the live long day (honestly, 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM with a brief 30 minute time home around 2:00 PM).  Mark and I took a walk and he trounced me at all three rounds of Monopoly Deal we played.  I made gluten free breakfast bars that resembled birdseed but were pretty good.  I love just hanging out and laughing with my boy.

It's the little things, you know?