Ode to my Oldest

This oldest child of mine, he's now 16, has been an interesting person to get to know. He's quietly intense, slow to react to new situations, and pretty subdued in his reactions to things - even the best present in the world may be met with "Oh, cool." He's into Legos, anime, manga, Nintendo, computer games, Syfy, the Discovery Channel, table top RPG's, other interesting table-top games (can't really call them board games, because many of them don't have boards), the SCA when we get a chance to go, hanging out with his parents, hanging out with his parents friends, hanging out with his friends (at the public library's teen activities), all things space related, but not really into reading - which has always been one of my passions. He has taken procrastination to a level of fine art, and sometimes has issues dealing with the intensity of his little brother (a toddler who's almost two). He has a sensitivity to petroleum derived food additives, so much so that we changed our diet to get rid of them completely. He shares my sensitivity to smells, but we don't share the same bothersome smells. He's a very likeable person, though his tendency to fidget and squirm (one of the reasons we changed our diet) puts people off. He's quick - does math in his head in a way I never could. He's slow - I think he may be dyslexic. He's a bundle of teen-age contraryness and indecisiveness - one minute he says something purposely to push buttons, the next he's changing his mind about what he'd just said and arguing against what he'd espoused.

But there's a thing that he does that I love. When we decided to go to the museum last week, he at first was against the idea. He didn't want to go, had been once before with a friend and was sure he wouldn't find anything worth doing this time. We convinced him that he'd have a good time, especially since this would be his little brother's first time. He finally decided he would go, and we headed out. After the day was over, he told us "Thank you for convincing me to go. I had a really good time, and a lot of fun." This is the thing I love about him. When he is unsure about doing something, and we finally convince him to at least give it a try, he tells us when he had misconceptions about the thing and really enjoyed what we'd gone to do.

It's refreshing to see that - in anyone. Too many people are unwilling to admit when they're wrong about something, that it's surprising to see a young man willing to go out on a limb and let people know that he was wrong. For our part, we try to stay low-key when he says something like that. A usual response is "We're glad you decided to come along; we were pretty sure you'd enjoy yourself." Don't want him to think he's going to catch flak from us for speaking up, but we want to reinforce his openness. He's a pretty cool guy. I'm glad I'm his mom.