Things to Come

I think it's funny to note that my boys have both received phone calls from young female classmates, but my daughter has yet to have a young boy call her. (And it isn't because she isn't pretty. All bias aside, my girl is plenty cute! Trust me... we'll be beating the boys off with sticks one day. I'm not trying to brag, I just want you to understand my girl isn't some barking dog.)

Girls calling our boys is funny because, even though I realize that our children are really young and nowhere near dating age, I have already stressed to our kids that, in our family when they get older, the boys can call young ladies, whereas Allison cannot call boys.

A "friendly" call is not what I'm talking about. That's different. I can see Allison calling a boy to ask about a school assignments she might have missed. She can ask a boy about the score of a football game on the phone. She can even call a friend who happens to be a boy to mention an event their mutual group of friends plans to attend. At church. On a Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon. Where plenty of adult chaperones will be.

But Allison won't be allowed to call any boys whose names conjure up silly giggles and sparkly eyes.

I feel strongly that a young lady should not chase a young boy via the telephone. A young boy should have the guts to call my girl if he's interested in her. And my boys should develop the boldness to call when they become interested in a girl. I know it's not the way things are always done these days. But it's the way I think they should be done.

The young girls who have called our boys aren't chasing them. (At least I don't think they are! And it's not because our boys aren't handsome. All bias aside, my boys are way cute. Trust me.... oh, you know what I mean!) The parts of the conversations I've heard are hilarious. Painful pauses while both parties think of what they have to talk about on the phone that they didn't just say to each other at school. My boys usually end up asking, "Why did you call me?" And then the conversation is over. Typically, the girls don't call again. I'm okay with that.

I have to share Spencer's latest phone call, because we weren't home and the machine picked it up. Obviously, I won't share the little girl's name.

I still haven't erased the message, even though she called early this week. I keep playing it back and giggling.

Here it is, word for word, including nervous ticks:

"Um, can I talk to Spencer? It's, like, I have nothing to do. So if he is home, or if this is the actual number for Spencer.... Spencer Moody. My number is.... This is.... So just tell him to call me if he'd like. I don't care if he doesn't. He can just call me or whatever. Okay. Bye."

I can't listen to the message any more with Spencer around. I think he's going to start to get mad at all the laughing I do when I hear it.

For the record, I am not laughing at this little girl's expense. It's a very innocent phone message. It's sweet.

I'll have a different reaction when it happens when our boys are teenagers. And don't even get me started if the phone calls happen after 9 p.m. I can't be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth at that point.

I'm working on uploading pictures of our family vacation to Pennsylvania this summer. I'll finish eventually.

Then I'll post pictures of our trip out west without the kids.