Snapshots of My Son
1) Recent Snapshot
Looking at a photo of my teenage parents and newborn me he asks how old exactly they were then.
"They were teenagers like I told you."
But how old, he asks.
"My dad was about 19 I think here. My mom was 16."
He looks at the picture again, and in the matter-of-fact way says:
"Oh. She's a Juno."
(Note: we are experimenting with PG 13 films and live action in general. And we just watched Juno. I found Juno particularly gratifying--I sort of skipped the explicit contemplation of "abortion" and he did not catch on--but we were able to explore a looser idea of pregnancy and parenting. We were able to talk about adoption (like Madonna? Yeah like Madonna but that baby's mommy is dead whereas Juno knew all along she would give the baby to these people). We also were able to further detach parenting and family from a) biology and b) nuclear family concepts and landed parenting squarely in the realm of "love".)
2) Flashback Snapshot (I found this in a journal from when he was 3, under the title First Time He Dropped Hints)
My son's watching his show "Cyberchase" on PBS and I am forcibly cuddling and kissing him. He is annoyed but I tend to not care because he is delicious and adorable. He says:
"You know? On Cyberchase girls don't bother boys..."
I pause and don't understand. Then I think I do but think this can't be happening so I ask,
"Am I bothering you?"
He looks me dead in the eyes and says:
"Yes."
posted by me @ 2:49 PM
