As I have mentioned many times I have two sons.. Hair Boy and Pita Boy.. they are both great!! Really I promise.. Hair Boy has always been this tall thin young man.. seeing him grow to his height I say 6'8 he says 6'5.. He won't measure to find out... anyway.. Pita Boy while only 20 months younger has always been, well young.
Hair Boy had presence his entire life, he was mature at 3. When at home he has always been the man of the house. I know both of his sisters look at him as more than just a big brother.. but Pita Boy has always been the little brother, while he is fully capable of being more he has relaxed into his place in the family hierarchy.. His only complaint ever was his height..
When he was 10 or so a Doctor said he should be about 5'10.. believe me for years that was his personal mantra.. 5'10, 5'10, 5'10, 5'10,.. he was ofter heard muttering. When Hair Boy graduated middle school he was 5'7 when Pita Boy did so he was 5'3.. over the next two years he inched his way to 5'6 then from January to May his Junior Year he made a nice 5'9.. I figured ok he has had his major growth spurt now an inch or two and he is done..
He did grow that additional inch in HS.. then after he graduated he just kept going.. This last year from 19-20 he has rocketed right up there and is now 6'2 or 6'3.. I knew he had grown, I knew he was taller but it never sank in until Word Girl's graduation when I took these pics..
the gang.. Hair Boy on the left and Pita Boy on the right
and then this one.. where they are together.. they are so close in height it just about blew my mind..
As I said in the beginning when did he grow to be so tall.. my boys they do make me proud
So she did it!! Word Girl Crossed the stage. no take backs.. 3 down 1 to go.. whew..I love their High School, graduations are great.. in and out in an hour.. oh pictures with the buds take a little time but the actual ceremony an hour.. and they have contests every year to see who can make it shorter. It was actually a cute ceremony the young lady who gave one of the student speeches was hysterical, she wrote a light hearted speech that kept everyone giggling. It was an incredibly hot day and I must admit I was worried about being miserable in the field house fortunately for all of us they got brand new air conditioner..
After we suffered through the gym pictures (now that was hot) and believe me I had to make her meander around take some pics with her friends she wanted to leave.. I kept saying you will want them later, she got a few so she was happy. Then we went to a nice park and took some family pics.. As the most recent pic I had of the four of them was like 4 years ago it was nice to have this. They grumbled and moaned but it seems that all of them now have these pics as their facebook pics.. I love it when I am right.
The best part of the day was our graduation lunch.. my girl is a goof, she could have gone anywhere but she wanted Wendy's they have frostys.. We all had a good laugh at that but you know what? There was no crowds, no hassle and plenty of stretch out room.. oh yeah and the Frostys were great!!
While Sunday is Graduation with all the pomp and circumstance.. tomorrow is Word Girl's last day of High School. How did that happen?
My Word Girl has been such a joy to me, her sense of self is a light shining through. Her sense of justice shines through a beacon to those whoneed a safe haven. She isn't perfect but she is a defender of those who can not defend herself. She will stand by those who need a friend.. she will fight for those who can not fight for themselves...
Sometimes she forgets that she is special. I don't think she will ever know what a true Gift from God she has been to me. My girl can see through so much of the malarkey.. she sees what is not what we want it to be. Sometimes the mirror she holds up is a hard one to look into because we have to accept that we are failing ourselves.. but to know that my child has this gift the knowledge that there is good and there is bad, there is left and there is right, there is right and there is wrong, there is black and there is white.. There are enough people in this world who live in the gray areas.. we need those who demand that fair exists.. that all receive the respect and care of those around them..
My Word Girl is off to study biology, she dreams of working with whales, or on the Great Barrier Reef (not sure how she is gonna incorporate the two). I know with her sense of compassion her sense of right and wrong she will be an advocate for these creatures that can not stand for themselves..
As she gets ready for college already I am missing parts of her.. of course once she leaves I will occasionally have the last word.. I wonder what that is like?
Yesterday my mom sent Word Girl her "jar money". This was a fun thing my mom started when Hair Boy was younger. She would save all of her change from her estate sales and then give him half and my sister half whenever he came to visit. He could spend it all, take home whatever was left or give the extra to her and she would match it in a savings account. Over the years the parameters had changed. It stopped being for just the grandchild visiting but became divided up between all the grandkids every summer, then finally it was she just deposited that money in their accounts and they would receive it upon graduation from HS.
Well Word Girl needed a few things for graduation and she argued, since she had already turned 18 could grandma send it now. They discussed it and grandma agreed. Yesterday the money came and off Word Girl and I went to Best Buy.. to purchase a laptop and a new camera.
Since we do not have a car and her friends were working we took a cab.. at her expense of course. I basically took myself and my id.. We arrived and everything was fine. She purchased a beautiful computer just a bit more expensive than her original idea but that was ok. Then we were off to the cameras.. she leans towards Canons and since I have never used a Canon I didn't love I tend to agree. Well Canon had this wonderful orange camera (orange is her favorite color) right at the edge of her price range. Of course she wanted to purchase it... Now here comes the problem. Because this was an unusual purchase the fraud dept at her bank froze her account and she could not buy the camera.. We called the bank (did I mention we also both left our cell phones at home?) from the store phone. They were gracious enough to allow us to use it. I was told the problem and put on hold for the fraud dept, initially I was told it would be 5-7 minutes.
At about 15 minutes she started begging me to hang up... she gets embarrassed easily and she was sure everyone was starting to stare. I managed to drag it out for another 10 but finally I gave in to her pleas and hung up. BAD CHOICE.. I called the cab and we waited for our pick up... OOOPS.. did I mention they froze her account and I had run out without my wallet? So now we are stranded at Best Buy and the girl was too embarrassed to go back in and use their phone so we walked to WalMart.. well they let us use the phone but only local area code land lines.. that meant we could not get a hold of anyone. I mean who remembers phone numbers anymore? Especially home ones... Finally we got through to a friend and he came and picked us up.
While she was all disgruntled about what the bank did and kept calling it stupid even though I explained why they did it as soon as we got in the car and I told the entire story our friend said.. oh exactly what thieves would go for.. so she shut up about that. I am proud to say I have only mentioned half a dozen times that had she let me stay on the phone, she would have had her camera and we would have had a ride home. I love being right.. even if it is an inconvenience
