The alien we call Cayden...

So, somewhere out of the blue, a stranger has come into my home. He looks a lot like my 9 year old son, Cayden. He sounds like him, laughs like him, etc. but there is something strangely different. It seems like out of the blue, some cosmic change has occured and my son is like a different person. I am not joking about the overnight change. One day he was his happy usual self and out of the blue, he has an attitude the size of Texas. We have tried to analyze it, talk to him, etc. but nothing. Finally, last week, I came to the end of my rope. He and I had a serious sit down. I asked him what was going on, why he was acting this way, etc. He told me, "Mom, you know, I'm not a kid any more." Uh, okay, what are you then? "I am a teenager." HA HA! Okay, so we had a chat about what that meant and that at age 9, he was nowhere near being a teenager. He has been dressing different after school, doing the "peace" sign, etc. and it is really tripping me out! That same day after school, he seemed to be a little less filled with attitude. I asked him again what was going on. He finally announced to me that plain and simple, he is in love. (I should be nominated for a freaking Oscar by the way for keeping a straight face through ALL of this!) I asked him what he meant. He told me that he was in love. He saw a girl at a wedding recently and fell in love with her. He didn't get to talk to her or anything so it probably "won't work out." But there is another girl in his class that he is in love with. (He is telling me this by the way, amidst eating 2 Vitamin C, a bunch of grapes and carrots, and exercising....no, I am not kidding. Apparently he needs to "bulk up" for love.) He then informs me that he will most likely be going on a date. I assured him, he would not be until he was older. He asked if that meant when he was 10? Ha, not even close, buddy! So, we broke through that wall and are doing much better. He still is acting like an alien child, but the attitude is gone. I guess he is focusing fully on being in love. He is downright giddy about it. I am so not ready for this!

I did have a very proud moment with him yesterday. He is reading "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and came to me yesterday very distraught. He said that he loved this book but that there were some words in it that he knew weren't right like "the 'a word', and the Lord's name in vein". I told him I would look at the rest of the book and see if it was okay to read. Meanwhile, he drafts a full blown letter all on his own to the author of the book saying that some of the language in his book is "inaproput" (inappropriate) and if he doesn't stop writing books with bad language, that he won't read them any more. He did the whole thing on his own with no prompting from me and I was quite proud. My little activist for good!

Finally, last night, when I came to bed, there was a note on my bed from him. It reads:
"Mom, I am sorry that you are sick. I think that must be the last straw for you. Is it? (circle yes or no). Anyway, I hope you are better tomorrow. But wait...just to let you remember, because you really forget, I have scouts. I hope I don't have any homework on Wednesday. Finally I can catch up on some other work. Tomorrow is a bery busy day so you better get your sleep. Good night. I love you. Sincerely, Cayden."

I guess I'll keep him...even if he is an alien.