Relative Normalcy

Living with a teenager!

Our sweet little man has been fairly interesting to live with lately. I promise you the day he turned 13 something in him snapped and he has been in FINE FORM. He truly is, for the most part, precious. Kind, thoughtful, respectful, funny, a great big brother and all around happy child. He has also always been one to drop a few funny lines on me over the years and he is still catching me off gaurd from time to time  and making me laugh so hard that I nearly wet my pants. And, even though I "think" that I will remember all these silly little stories, I know that one day they will slip my mind, so I wanted to write them down for my memories sake. Here are a few of the things that he has said in the past few weeks that have both infuriated us, left at as a loss for words, or made us laugh out loud.

*We were having a simply normal afternoon. He and I were standing across the bar from one another in  the kitchen talking about our day and what needed to be done that evening. I simply said, "Hey, when you are done with your snack, could you please switch the laundry over?" He then dropped his snack, threw his arms in the air, and attacked,"WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO LAUNDRY? LAUNDRY IS STUPID. I HATE LAUNDRY. STUPID LAUNDRY. WHY DON'T WE HAVE A ROBAOT TO DO THAT? STUPID LAUNDRY!!!!!" First of all, we don't even say the word "stupid" in our house, but, that was the least of the issues.  I calmly said "Ok. Clearly we have laundry because we like to wear clean clothes. If you would like to wear dirty ones, go right ahead, but for now you need to get your happy hiney in there and switch the laundry. And furthermore, we DO have a robot that does the laundry. It is called the 'Washing Machine' Now hush up."  I am telling you it was like he was from another planet! He did the laundry and hasn't said another word about helping with the laundry or the robot.

*Randy has TERRIBLE hearing. Chandler is REALLY soft spoken. This is generally cause for arguments around here. Randy is CONSTANTLY saying "What? Speak up son." And usually Chandler says something like "You are deaf." rolls his eyes a little bit and then repeats himself. One afternoon, it went something like this.... Randy- "What did you say?" Chandler- "I said it loud enough for this whole house to hear me and I am NOT repeating myself!" I thought Randy's head was going to spin around. I COULDN'T believe that he said it. It is SO not like him. That boy is testing his parents like crazy. It is funny now, but at the moment-it was NOT pretty!

*And finally.... there is a sweet family that lives across the street from us. They have a young boy and then two teenage daughters (who by the way, are BEAUTIFUL). Little brother thinks that Chandler is great and wants to play with his ALL the time! And Chandler will always say yes and happily goes over to their house and plays. He has NEVER once mentioned the girls (or the tons of super cute friends that are over there all the time too). Well... the other night I was over there too, and on our way back across the street, I said "Dude. Are you telling me that you have NEVER noticed how cute those girls are? I mean, it's fine if you have, I would think it was weird if you hadn't." He looked over his shoulder at me with a HUGE grin and  said "Mom, c'mon. I am weak. I AM a man!" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! I laughed so hard.

He is really so entertaining. We are blessed every day (even the ones that we want to ring his neck and throw him in the dryer) by him and the young man that he is growing up to be.  I am not sure what other "teenage" moments are around the corner, I am positive there will be some doosies, but I am going to treasure each one!