It’s the time of year when important events occur. It’s not the June Wedding Season. Fortunately, we’re a few years away from that.
It’s prom / birthday / dance / end of school season, though, which means that there are a lot of social events happening.
Just as the twins experienced their prom last week, this week is the 8th grade dance for our youngest son.
For the first time, he was going to have to acknowledge – and identify – someone who was more than just one of his buddies and who would actually be going on a date with him.
This, less than a month after he got braces put on and his voice dropped another octave.
It’d be more than just a “pull up in the drive and honk for her to come out”, too, because no parent is going to let this opportunity go by without a photographic record. New clothes had to be bought to coordinate with the young lady’s outfit, especially given that he’s grown almost 5 inches in the last 7 months.
So Friday evening found us all at his mom’s house, cameras in hand. The logistics of travel to an 8th grade dance are different than those of a prom, given that the attendees are (hopefully) not quite old enough to drive. A parent has to act as chauffer.
His siblings (both biological and chosen) were on hand, ready to give their opinions as only siblings can do. They were quick to point out that, “you have to put the corsage on her, stupid, don’t just hand her the box,” and “tuck in your shirt again, you look like a slob.”
Sometimes the noble intent gets lost in the private language of brothers and sisters.
For the big event, he (and most of his contemporaries) had opted out of the traditional dark suit. Given his growth rate, we didn’t push for buying one of those right now, either. It was hard enough to find a size 17 ½ shirt with 37 inch sleeves.
Especially one in iridescent pink. You got to love the internet sometimes.
A pink silk shirt and black tie were chosen to compliment his date’s outfit. It was somewhat reminiscent of those we wore in the late 70’s, although I didn’t bring that up.
It was great to see the kids interact, though, and how they might not say it but were happy for him to reach this milestone.
They didn’t say anything that would intentionally embarrass him much in front of his date, April, who seemed to take it all in good stride.
It’s early Saturday morning now, and we’ve not received a final report. Text messages indicated that it was, “OK, but the music was kinda lame.”
The after-party and sleepover was back at his mom’s house, where we suspect that a good time was had by all given that there were no calls from either the police or the hospital, the standards for all successful events involving adolescents.
I hope that Caleb and April had a good time with their classmates. But I’m not sure that we’re ready to see them quite this grown up yet.
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