Justin, our dancing eleven year old, is starting to make the small changes that lead to puberty. The first big change was the morning showers. He is in a big hurry to finish his breakfast and then off to the shower he goes. He will return to the kitchen 15-20 minutes later wearing a towel around his waist. This is when I shoo him out of the kitchen and into his room to get dressed. He tends to take deep breaths and pop his chest out. A mighty proud peacock we are raising here.
The emotional changes of puberty have not affected Justin's sense of humour. I asked him about his Nexus, which he affectionately calls Smalley. Justin looked at me with a deadpan expression and said, "Smalley was a good friend." I laughed quite hard when he said this. The Nexus after service centre is in Seoul, and we aren't planning on taking that trip any time soon. Smalley is broken and won't be fixed quickly. Justin's 'friend' is gone.
The emotions of the little people run amuck in this house. Aidan didn't want to go to Taekwondo for about a week and half. I thought it was about the teacher being hard on a little boy who cries easily. That wasn't it at all. It was about breaking the board with his hands. He had tried a number of times to no avail to break the board, and always came off feeling defeated. I will never forgot the Friday he came bouncing into the kitchen, "I did it! I did it! I broke the board!" The best part of this is that he is no longer whining about Taekwondo. He happily goes and regales stories over supper hour.
Jordan continues to be an emotional wonder, happy one minute, and crying the next. Oh, the joys of being 4 years old! The latest game is pulling and stretching my shirts. He stretched one of my shirts so much, a button popped off! It's hard to stay mad when this cute little face looks at you and says, "I'm sorry Mommy. It was an accident!"
The best over the past four weeks is the backed up toilet. Justin, our eldest who tends to like the bathroom, had spend a little too much time in there. Sure enough, right before bed, the toilet backed up. My dear husband (have I mentioned this man doesn't do bathroom emergencies very well?) tried a couple of things in the bathroom to no avail. "Don't worry, I'll handle this!" "Okay, dear!" 45 minutes later, it was not handled. In the end, he shut the bathroom door and said, "I'll fix it on Thursday when I come home."
Somehow, leaving the bathroom like that for 4 days did not seem like a workable plan with 3 boys in the house. The following day, I borrowed an industrial plunger from one of the bathrooms in the commercial building beside our apartment, and fixed the toilet myself. My husband was most impressed with my skills. "How did you do that?" I replied, "Your wife has many talents."
Those are the highlights from the past 4 weeks. Puberty showers, a broken device, success with breaking Taekwondo boards, popped buttons, and a backed-up toilet. Oh, Aidan earned a green belt in Taekwondo this week!
I wonder what next month will hold?