Whenever I take Tio anywhere to pick up a friend (a guy), he sits in the front with his friend in the back. Then he calls over his shoulder, “Dude, did you see this...” or “Dude, wasn’t that sick...” and so forth. When Kit picks up a friend (a girl), he sits in the back with her and they talk head to head. Not sure what that’s all about but it’s interesting.
I’ve been working on Doc these past couple of days to do better with Dad “or else”. Tish and I went out for supper tonight which meant Buddy was putting Doc to bed. It was 50/50 on whether he’s make trouble. When we got home Doc had been in bed but was up taking a pee. He walked past the bathroom door on his way back to bed and gave me 2 thumbs up. We shared a hug and off he went. What relief.
I set Tio at studying flutes and flutemaking for his last summer project and he fussed and fudged for a couple of days. Finally, yesterday I said, “This may not make any difference to a 13 year old but you take absolutely no interest in anything I do. In fact you walk out of the room if it bores you yet you expect me to take an active interest in absolutely every little thing you do. You EXPECT it. You may want to start thinking about a world outside of your own self involvement. You don’t have to like what I do but maybe you should take an interest in something outside your limited scope.” This morning when I got up he was finishing writing the flute paper. He’d put thought into it and was inquisitive about some of the details. It’s the best thing he’s written all summer.