A date with my eldest boy

Just like his Dad, this kid really knows how to enjoy 'a moment'. These pictures were taken on our mother/son date last week.

Chocolate milk moustache!

After his hot chocolate and chocolate brownie, he helped me out with my drink too. Then he looked for leftovers in his lunch box and finished those bits off too.

Then he talked and talked, barely pausing for breath!

Mid conversation he announced 'Sorry, excuse me a moment … my mother doesn't like me to talk with my mouth full!'

A rare sight. This boy likes to talk as much as his mother! Recently, we've been clashing a little. I've been hard on him. I never expected to have a child that would mirror so many aspects of my own character. Sometimes he's so like me that it drives me crazy! Like when I see him biting his fingernails when he's nervous. Like when he's wrong and he pushes his bottom lip out and really doesn't want to apologise. Like when he's teased and he walks away saying 'you really hurt my feelings'. Luckily he is also very much his own unique self and has many beautiful gifts and assets that I can only dream of … he is tender and thoughtful, kind and generous, quick witted and bright, he is funny and has a great sense of humour. In fact, he is able to spin right out of a bad mood with just the slightest of cajoling, something I still can't manage so well. I gave him good hair though, now that, he got from me.

My eldest son

'Geek' by Zach 

My eldest son and I have a lot in common, we are both sensitive, dramatic, worrier's and we both think that we're funny. We share more than our big hair too, we share in our love of laughter. Now I mean proper can't catch your breathe, spitting tea out of your mouth, sides hurting laughter and it's usually at the expense of others! Well, actually he is far kinder than I. It is normally the case that I might be impersonating someone or something and this kind boy of mine, who is so sensitive to others feelings tries as hard as he can not to laugh but he finally surrenders. Sometimes he pauses for so long as he gathers momentum for his outburst that I worry that he might turn blue, yep that's how funny he finds me! Tonight for example after the youngest had gone to bed, the eldest and I settled down for our new found routine of quality time together which involved drawing stuff, together. Tonights drawings are of 'geeks'! At present it would seem that there are plenty of things that this boy is not certain that I know about, you know like default settings on the remote controls or lyrics by The Ramones or atom bombs or forward rolls. He is quite right to doubt me, I don't really know about these things but all too often I am too proud to admit this to my seven year old. His eyes alone tell a thousand stories and at times I catch 'me' staring right back at me, neither of us backing down. Equally, that mirror of mine is so very quick to tell me he loves the songs I sing at bedtime, the stories I tell, the food I cook, he reminds my hubby to pick up gifts for me that are absolutely to my taste, he suggests a visit to my favourite places that I may have mentioned in passing months ago, he remembers to tell me he loves me over and again and asks if I'm ok when he thinks I might not be. This boy of mine breaks my heart wide open, he makes a lump come to my throat just thinking about the kindness he shows others! Sure I find it annoying that he corrects me and that he rolls his eyes in a certain way when he's unhappy/disappointed/believes he's in the right and all those other little foibles that we each have and gather. But I can't be too hard on him .... I know exactly where he gets it from!

'Geek' by Me

Newborn Zach 2005

Zach by Stuart Tonge  November 2012