the world is macaroni

I am a lucky woman.  I live in close proximity to my grandchildren and I get to know their secrets.  In a  world of disappearing extended family situations I bask warmly in their affections.

Ethan is turning twelve and I don't recognize him much these days. He is dissolving into icy moodiness and I get the the heavy-lidded, level stare that teen-agers give their elders, the one that says, I need nothing from you anymore.  And then the sun will come out, he smiles and I am taken in by those warm brown eyes. The births of our children and their children define us and save us from mediocrity.  On the other hand our lives are then marked with stronger boundaries and most of us lose our sense of humor, just for a little while.

Ethan 2009

Ethan can talk football like a seasoned sports announcer and he excels in science and math and pushes out As with very little effort.  He rough handles his younger brother with some pretty scary head holds and then presents an angel's face in school choir. His has a tender heart and it will no doubt be broken a few times, his emotions on his sleeve and everywhere else.  I watch him lope off in the distance, over sized feet, a St. Bernard puppy, he is now superior to my height and we are losing him to the world, we know that.

Adam 2009

Adam is eight years old and nothing like his brother. Ethan is a thoughtful intellectual with the orderly mind of an engineer.  Adam is crafty and alert to innuendos that usually only adults perceive.  He is an artist and a poet and he rewrites lyrics to his favorite songs.  He once spent the better part of a basketball game slowly eating a program to the wide-eyed admiration of three second grade girls behind him.

I find it strange that Adam can see swans in cloud formations and yet find finesse in the corniest bathroom humor. He has scared a few teachers but  they just need to take time to know the old soul that resides behind all the mischief.  Yeah, some of the pictures he draws are scary, the ones with children jumping from a fiery eight-story building and isn't that how serial killers start out?

 
This is the kind of story you write when you wake up at 5:20 a.m. and get up to make your husband's lunch because you were too tired the night before and you can't get back to sleep. I'm not normally this good but the cowboy offered to use his frequent flier miles to buy me an airline ticket to San Diego. You're being awfully nice to me, I ask him, are you having an affair?

"Somebody once told me the world was macaroni

  so I ate a bite of  a tre-e-e-e.

 It tasted kinda funny

 So I spit it on a bunny

 And the bunny started cussing at me."

Sung to the tune of "All Star" as performed by Smash  Mouth on the Shrek I soundtrack and rewritten by Adam, 8 years