We were going to go to Dairy Queen...

I guess all parents use bribery to get their kids to do what they want them to do. This morning is the first day of summer break and Doug agreed to run up to the store to get the boys doughnuts, at their behest. They were fighting and bickering while he was getting ready to leave and I heard him chastise them a couple of times. They continued and I heard him yell out, "Ok! NO DOUGHNUTS THEN! YOU CAN FORGET THE DOUGHNUTS!"

I knew that he was still going to get the doughnuts...

My nephew Erick recently told me that Dwight and Scott used to say, "You know we were going to go to Dairy Queen, but I guess now we won't..." For every kind of thing - fighting in the back seat to cleaning their rooms. As an adult now, Erick realized that they were never planning to go to Dairy Queen, they'd just pull that out to get results. But as a boy, he would think, "Dang It! We could've gone to Dairy Queen!"

Portrait of Doreen Gray

I had a dream Saturday night that I was re-living my youth. Young again! A chance to do it over! And I was young again while cognizant of life lessons learned in my first youth. But I experienced profound sadness when I realized that I was youthful with the young and not reliving my youth with my friends. I hated it - I was so depressed while I was dreaming (a very odd sensation).

I reflected on the dream all day Sunday. I realized that what made the idea of being young again pleasurable was being with my friends and knowing the people I knew then. Just getting youth back without those friends and even experiences (no internet, no social media, no mobile phones) was not palatable.

Fondue

Yesterday was Emery's birthday party and he wanted a fondue party. So we had 5 or 6 boys over and they had chocolate and cheese fondue, watched a little of Alice in Wonderland and played outside.

It was such a joy to watch them run around and jump on the trampoline. I worry so much about Em and his friendships - I get concerned that he struggles to fit in. He's a very sensitive boy and his giftedness is a challenge for friend-making. It sounds like some kind of bragging to put it that way, but I can't ignore his giftedness any more than I can ignore his food allergies or ADHD.

I have long thought that all three of those things are connected somehow - gifted, allergic, ADHD. There are so many kids we meet that have the same three things in common. One of the families we'll carpool with to the gifted program Emery is attending this summer seems so like Em. His mom and I have been talking, mainly to get the carpooling to UW set up, and over the course of several conversations we realize that they are very alike. It reinforces to me that issue with attending to things is connected to his intellect and is the very thing that fuels his giftedness.