My...I Meant Our..Okay, Bregon's First Date

Today was the big day. In preparation for his very first date, Bregon had very quietly showered with the extra smelly-good guy-soap and made sure that I knew that he had enough money by giving me back all the extra money from the original bit I had sent for him to buy his dance tickets.

In middle-school 'tween-ese, he was really saying, "Mom, I might need some more money to buy pizza, cokes and nachos for us at the dance." Of course, in my over-bearing know-it-all Mommie state, I had already made sure that I had $10 in ones counted out and set aside just for the big day.

I think I was more nervous about all of this than he was. He was up at the crack of dawn to get ready for school. None of that prodding and having to wake him up a few times today and certainly no running late, even though the dance wouldn't start until the end of the school day.

I had nightmares of Bregon doing anything he could to try and stay home from school today to try and avoid the dance. The image of him in my dream involved him running into my room and striking this super-hero pose, brandishing a wizard's wand made for his fifth birthday from a real tree by his Auntie Kathey, with a silly Zorro style mask around his eyes, and wearing his favourite grey flannel bathrobe.

I distinctly remember chiding him for being well enough to play yet sick enough to stay home from school to miss the dance. Of course, when I woke up I immediately realized that it was all just a dream as the scent of his cologne wafted in waves into my room through the air vent.

Bregon seemed calm, cool, and appeared to have himself quite together. Of course, this mission has only been about a year in the planning in both he & his date's little minds. He had already had plenty of time to be nervous and had long since gotten over it.

I spent my day fretting and worrying for him. I clock-watched, wondering if he would forget and ride the bus home like he used to last year when he would forget his doctor's appointments sometimes. 3:30 came and went, and Bregon never came knocking at my door.

He had planned this out, executed everything perfectly, and had landed this date by the second day of school. He remembered to buy the tickets even though his date very sweetly reminded him just in case (he had already had the tickets to show her at this point) and had set out to have the perfect day.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. My baby is all grown up and quite the gentleman. I, on the other hand, am obviously just NOT ready for all of this!

In a show of support, I made sure that I had the triplets all loaded up and ready to go and pick him up by 4:15. I knew that if I was late, he would run the risk of getting into trouble and not be able to attend the next dance, so I made sure that I was on time.

By 4:20, I was sitting in a very long and dangerous line on Line Avenue waiting to turn on to the street that is designated for the pick-up line. I must have stayed in that line a good 30 minutes. We got lucky, and nobody got into trouble.

I tried to be very sneaky once I picked him up and attempted to get him to talk all about the dance. Of course he is 12 1/2 and has kept basically mum about all the gory details!

I did notice that he had run a bit of water through his hair so that it would spike (he thinks he looks more like the newest Dr. Who that way) and that he was still very smelly-good when he got into the car.

I did manage to pry out of him that he did dance with her and that he had even bought her pizza and a coke. He was very surprised that they do not play slow dances at their school dances. He did admit that if he wanted to slow dance, they would have had to do so to a fast song.

He did NOT, however, ever disclose if they slow danced to the fast music or not, no matter how much I prodded. Bregon was very cute about saying how his date had admitted to him that she had had a crush on him since she had first laid eyes on him at the Fencing Sal and how she had wanted him to ask her out since early last year.

That was the end of the details, though. I am very surprised that I actually was able to get him to tell me that much. He also did say that they had discussed cheating and that he had told her that he wasn't that sort of guy. So, does this mean he is going steady?

He has plans of attending the next dance, and the dance after that. Maybe even with the same date. Oh my! I just do not know what to think or how to act anymore!

Am I really that old that my little boy has started dating? I suppose I had always known that this would be inevitable. My how he has grown into quite a young man, when it was just yesterday that....

(he would have my hide if I gave you the details!)

The Much Awaited Appointment

Today, we had Bregon's ADHD doctor's appointment. The office had so unceremoniously decided to reschedule our back to school appointment for the week after school started.

To make matters worse, they had decided that 3:00 p.m. would give me plenty of time to get him there. This meant that I needed to pick him up after school and bee-line it from Caddo Middle Magnet off of Line Avenue, all the way down to the Youree Drive Extension.

Ha Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha hah. Yes it really was funny after the fact. I managed to leave the house with the trio in tow and the car packed about 2 p.m. I should have had just enough time to run by my father's and check on our cat and get the mail.

His house is all of two minutes from mine, but today of all days, they had decided to film on location at the house around the corner. This meant that a normally narrow street was made even smaller and very maze-like to navigate with all of the trailers and eighteen wheeler's and such parked all over and down the street.

They were heralded by the two lone police cars that were strategically placed to suggest to drivers that they might want to alter their route. I actually made it through the maze and to Daddy's house somehow, but it did take quite a bit longer dodging obstacles and all.

I was still basically on time at this point. It was about 2:20 and the school bell would ring at 2:45. I even made it to the school with little or no fanfare. I innocently pulled into the pick-up line and claimed my spot in line.

The bell rang and that line didn't start to move at all. I should have known something was up when the second line next to us was steadily flowing and I was STILL in the same spot. 10 minutes later, that line finally started moving.

For a fleeting second, I had horrible thoughts of Bregon forgetting about the appointment and accidentally riding the bus home. Then, I saw him sitting there talking to his friends, patiently waiting for me to show up. As luck would have it, he had written himself a message in very large very bold print...on his for-arm so that he wouldn't forget to wait for me to pick him up.

It took me until 3:15 to get him to his appointment and make that drive. I was 15 minutes late and it was driving me crazy. As I drove, I had thoughts of the office staff refusing to see him because we were late or maybe they forgot to log this appointment into the appointment system like the past two times. What if they decided that we would have to reschedule, what would happen to Bregon in the meantime?

I was soo frazzled by the time I got him to the office, that I went ahead and sent him inside to let them know that we were here while I unloaded the babies. Some poor, well-meaning lady tried to tell me something from the car parked next to us, but I couldn't really hear what she was saying because of the traffic.

I think she was trying to say something nice about my trio, but I cannot be sure because I was much too focused on trying to get them out of the car and into the stroller in some fashion that would avoid baby conflict (just not going to happen no matter what but in my state of mind I had refused to believe it!)

Bregon met me in the hallway of the office to let me know that everything was okay and that they would see us immediately. As luck would have it, it was a different receptionist lady than we had ever seen before. She was very nice and apologized because she couldn't find some of our paperwork.

The doctor turned out to be a man that I had worked with last year at Bregon's school Renaissance Festival Committee. He is a very nice man, and I really hoped that my tiny three ringed circus didn't get too much in the way.

Poor Bregon seemed to spend more time trying to help me prevent the babies from crying and hair pulling and trying to calm them down than actually fielding his questions for his appointment. We both really did try and answer as much as we could and talk about as many concerns as could be remembered.

I felt really bad about having to have the babies with us for the appointment. They were so loud and silly (which is unusual for them, but they had just spent the past hour and fifteen minutes in the car waiting so they were fussy.)

I had meant to try and leave them with a baby-sitter for the appointment (which had originally been last Monday and would have been after the funeral) but the rescheduled day conflicted with a business trip and work day of my baby-sitters.

Lucky for us, the doctor didn't find us to outlandish. We managed to leave with our prescription for new medicine that promises to last much longer and not have the side effects that had kept Bregon from sleeping and more importantly eating and growing (he has gained about 5 lbs this summer alone while off of the medications!)

I also had a coupon for the medicine. It was in the form of this card that had to be activated by calling a toll-free number. Of course being from a major drug company, it came with many many MANY questions that I had to try and answer while listening to the babies scream from my backseat.

I finally got the thing activated, and bravely headed to target to try and get the medication filled. I was so very grateful to the pharmacy there. This visit was hassle-free and within 30 minutes I was on my way home with my very hungry very fussy trio and my very patient saint of a 12 year old.

All in all, it was a productive day. I was reminded that even if I leave the house very early, I will still most likely find a way to be late. I also really need to remember that there really isn't much I can do about it if the circumstances are beyond my control as they were today.

And finally, after five appointments and three visits to that office later, we finally have the medication that will hopefully help my child have a better school year. Tonight, he asked me for his dance money. He will need to buy his first tickets to his first school dance. He even has a date. I suppose he is off to a pretty good start!