Baby Lovefest

We are having a love fest here. I am not ready for this. How did my children get old enough to start "liking" people? This is getting strange.

My 10 year old son likes a darling girl in his class. She likes him. Their relationship involves doing class work together. I noticed during Friday recess duty that they do a lot of chatting. OK, that is not that big a deal. Up until now he has been oblivious to the girls who like him. He is a good sweet boy and it will take him a while to catch on to the whole boy/girl thing. He is one of those studious, responsible types. Girls have not been a priority to him. So I thought I had more time to wrap my mind around this.

But - my daughter decided to start liking boys. This is new. Up until now she has been adored by all of the boys in her class and one aberrant third grader. Last year one of the boys actually gave her flowers for her birthday. Her response was "oh, thanks." Not a big deal. She didn't really "like" anyone. She just went through the world assuming everyone thought she was great.

Now all of a sudden, Dylan is wonderful.

Dylan is a darling boy. He was very quiet last year. This year he is a little more extroverted.

I guess she has noticed.

I had no idea this was coming until we got our school pictures back last week. Ms. Peri and I were looking at her class photo and I mentioned that everyone looked nice in the picture. She gazed at the photo and said in a quiet voice, "and Dylan is handsome." Alarm bells immediately went off in my head. Ugh, must start the *BIG* Boy Conversations. SHE'S ONLY EIGHT!

So I asked her, "uhm, so do you think Dylan is cute now?" She promptly rolls her eyes at me (I can't believe that's already started!) and says "Mooom!" I had to stifle a gulp/snicker and ask her if she thought he was a nice boy.

"Yes, Mom! He is very nice! Stop embarrassing me!"

As she stomped off in a huff because I embarrassed her I thought OMG! The DRAMA begins in earnest.

Now my youngest son has always been "the man" in his Pre-School class. We will never forget the Sawyer/Daisy/Thatcher Loooove Triangle. Now he is in a deep and meaningful relationship with Harriet. He is sad because this year he went on to Kindergarten and she was left behind in Pre-School.

He asked if he could call her this morning. He thought it was only fair that he get to call someone after watching his brother talk to one of his buddies about a video game and his sister talk to one of her friends about their Halloween costumes.

Oh what the heck - I gave her mom a call and asked her if it would be alright for them to talk. She is really cool and she thought it was cute and let Harriet talk. Saw and Harriet chatted for an HOUR. An HOUR! They talked about Halloween, they talked about cartoons, they gossiped about their classmates. If not for the subject matter, they could have been at a cocktail party.

After their conversation, he asked me to arrange lunch with her at McDonald's. Does it count as a date if both her mom and I have to be there?

This is where I am starting to get freaked out.