The Boy almost made me cry last night.

He didn’t mean to, of course, but it was just too precious.  When I walked in, I was exhausted.  And while Wednesday nights are wonderful for Bryan (and rightfully so), I’m usually hitting the mid-week exhaustion AND I rarely get a nap those days. 

As usual, the 7 year-old energy machine had no clue.  He was INSANE.  Bubbling over to be in a new house. (Summer is proving to be very boring in BioMom’s house.  More on that later.)

The Boy and Bryan were playing some GameCube in his room (it’s just too damn hot to do much outside), so I plopped down on the couch.  And as I could’ve predicted, soon had a 7 year-old in my ear.  He tossed some box to me, with his face just exuding excitement.  “We can grow snot!” he said.

So he had my attention.

He had brought over a box of “Nasty Science”, the kind of kit that all boys love because you can, indeed, grow snot and create fart gas and make fake blood.  I love it because .. well, hell, it’s science.  So even I perked up at this.

He announced he got it for his birthday.  “Which ones have you already tried?” I asked, scanning the back of the box to see what his choices might’ve been.

“None,” he said, his voice softening.  “Mom has too many headaches.”

Even now, I’m tearing up. 

My mom will readily admit that raising kids is not easy.  Our household was, at times, especially difficult.  But we ALWAYS had crafts to do.  We ALWAYS had time with our parents.  Especially during the summer.  And I’ve inherited this gene, picking up $1 craft projects when they appear at Books-a-Million and finding educational toys that will make The Boy think.

And it KILLS me that he’s not getting this all the time.  Because he deserves it.  He’s a bright boy, with a love for science (like all boys) and math (GOD love him!), and he deserves to have attention put towards that.

I guess this is a proclamation and a note of thanks.  Thank you, Mom, for instilling great parenting skills in me and showing me the way to be actively involved with your children.  Because every kid deserves it.  And I’d like to proclaim all of my teacher-friends worthy of riches because what parents DON’T do at home, they do in their classrooms. 

I kinda got on a soapbox there.  But I meant every word.