A Snippet of Sleepover
My daughter has 6 pals over for her “sleepover birthday party.” I find it odd that I am surprised. I am surprised that all six of my daughter’s friends share certain personality traits. Vociferous, opinionated and confident. It is alarming combination especially when there are so many of them. I thought I knew them all quite well already but they are different creatures in a school setting. They are different creatures when they visit us for an individual play date. En masse they are impressive.
I have only two priorities for this venture, that my daughter enjoys her birthday celebration and that the boys keep their nether regions covered, anything else is a windfall. It is immediately apparent that the latter may affect the former.
“Geez, put yur shirts on why dontcha,” demands a youthful nine year old. Neither boy pays her any heed. California in December may have an occasional chill, but inside it is balmy.
“I SAID put yur shirts on!” she repeats more loudly with an acerbic edge. The boys continue to play with their Pokemon without a care in the world. “Madeline yur boys ain’t listenin to me!”
“I know, but it is rather warm in here don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but you know! They’ve got their shirts off,” she exclaims, outraged with a hint of embarrassment, “I can see their skin an all.” I dither. Shirts off but trousers on, is far more of a generous compromise than I could have anticipated.
“I know, how about you run off and play with the other girls, leave the boys in here, then you won’t have to look at them?”
“Hmm, maybe.” She squirms a little, as indecisive as me.
She adopts a different tactic and makes her feelings known.
“Pokemons are evil. I hate em!” My sons continue to play with the plush, fluffy creatures.
“They’re dumb!” she continues when no reaction is forthcoming.
“Are yah deaf?” Neither so much as blinks in her direction. I dither. Intervene or wait for her to get bored?
“Are yah in special ed coz yur deaf?” Silence. She steps back into the kitchen to ask the same question to me. “They’re in Special Ed because they’re autistic, remember we talked about this with your mum?” She looks back at me blankly, “oh yeah,” she mumours distractedly. She returns to the family room relentless, to yell at the two deaf boys.
“I hate Pokemon!” I find the repetition a little tiresome but she is dogged. It occurs to me that some kind of mis-communication has taken place. Some how or other she has filed ‘autism’ into the ‘deaf’ category, they appear synonymous, but then children often mid-file unfamiliar information into the wrong category.
“D’yah hear me? I said they’re dumb and stoopid.” A trigger word. A banned word.
“Day are not stoopid. Stoopid is a bad word. We are not be saying ’stoopid’ in our house. It be dah rule.”
“Itsa stoopid rule. That’s a real dumb rule. They’re evil guys believe me, I know!”
“You be not know.”
“How many ya got anyways?” she adds in a voice that fails to beat the sound barrier.
“Infinity,”he answers casually.
“Really?”
“No I be lie coz infinity is my favourite number huh!” he roars with laughter as he rolls around of the floor delighted at his own joke. His older brother mimics the sound of each Pokemon exactly, as the boys continue to play together. He blinks across at the girl, “you wanna play wiv us?” he asks tentatively.
“No, they’re dumb……and evil,” she persists. She hovers in the kitchen close by as I prepare the next of innumerable snacks for those with hollow legs.
“Er, when’s his birthday?” she asks me.
“June.”
“How old he’s gonna be?”
“He will be nine.”
“Oh.”She seems ever so slightly disappointed although I’m not entirely sure why? I keep my own counsel because I am an adult and therefore technically the enemy.
My daughter and the rest of her party flutter back into the family room as the boys continue to play. As they lounge on the sofa, the boys’ Pokemon noises are a soft back drop to their discussion about the boys in their own 4th Grade class.
I ear wig, one of my more finely honed skills. I memorize each male name and the reaction of the girls to the naming of each. The flock flees amid a flurry of girlish squeals. One girl, the same girl, remains behind. She leans against the wall watching them. Her fingers twiddle with a coil of her ash blond hair. She sidles closer to my son. She appears coy, with a healthy dollop of simper.
“Can yah make any Pokemon noise?” she coos. I wonder if my son recognizes coy when he sees it?
“Sure,” he beams using a voice that is loud enough to be heard, rather than his usual whisper. He rises to the bait. “You name it?”
“I don know any Pokemon names,” she titters.
“Here,” he slips across the room to retrieve the Pokemon manual, a thing the size of a telephone directory and just as boring. Her eyebrows shoot up as he shoves the book into her waiting arms and chest. “Geez, they sure do have long names. I don know if I can even say em?”
“Try.”
“Er Charmeleon?”
He contorts his body into an exact replica and growls to a perfect pitch. Her immediate alarm is tempered by intrigue. She calls the name again and he crawls towards her, still miming, still perfect. “Come on Charmeleon,” she beckons, siren that she is. He scampers after her to her squeals of delight.
Oh yes, I think he has”coy” filed in quite the right category.
Stumble it!
December 24th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Oh my goodness….I think that is one of the cutest things I have read in a very long time. Yes, I do believe he does have it filed just right.
December 24th, 2007 at 1:25 am
That’s gorgeous!
December 24th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Wonderful!!
And i think you were very brave!!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:09 am
I love your boys reactions. When I was first reading it I was getting so so irritated with that little girl but your son really straightened her up. Lovely!
December 24th, 2007 at 4:08 am
What a wonderful post! I think you’re very brave too. Have a lovely Christmas day, BG x
December 24th, 2007 at 4:17 am
I love how you write your children’s accents in. I think it’s so funny.
December 24th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Great post - sounds like a great party!
I just popped over to wish you and your family a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may they be everything you’re hoping for.
Much Love and Reiki Blessings
Akelamalu
x
December 24th, 2007 at 4:58 am
Grrrl cooties!!
December 24th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Mine likes girls… but of course he’ll tell you they’re bad… as he tried to get his little blond haired cousin to play last night…
Have a great Xmas.
S.
December 24th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Sounded like a good time was had by all- maybe even you!
December 24th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Sounds like a successful party. I too was frowning at the impertinent little girl, but the ending was priceless.
Hope your daughter had a great birthday. Happy Christmas to you and your family.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Congrats on having the boys’ nether areas covered during the party
I am like Joy I too was getting annoyed with this little girl. I’m glad it turned out well.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Bet you’re mentally and physically spent. Girl # 1 was seriously irritating. I would have had to lay the smack down. Coy girl … well, well, well… she was handled very well.
Hopefully somem rest is in the very near future for you.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:57 am
I love the ending to your story!
December 24th, 2007 at 6:59 am
my word! such rudeness from a guest. you handled that a lot more graciously than i might have.
December 24th, 2007 at 7:05 am
hehe Girls are evil not pokeman! hehe!
December 24th, 2007 at 7:13 am
Having two girls, the slumber parties were certainly ordeals. The year the lice went around from the field trip to the Children’s Museum of Houston (a very popular hat area) made for a nightmare year when certain parents just wouldn’t deal w/ it. Ick.
The boys would come and toilet paper the trees at the slumber party houses. I guess that was easier to deal wiith than flashing? Maybe not.
December 24th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Pokemon? Infinity? Perfect imitations? Are we living in your house?
You have the patience of Job not to have shut that down in its early stages…maybe about the time you heard the word “deaf” or “stoopid.”
But your patience left room for something new.
December 24th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Very sweet. Merry Christmas Maddy.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Slumber Parties! Ahhhhhhh! You are brave indeed! Merry Christmas!
December 24th, 2007 at 9:05 am
The joys of slumber parties - INDEED! - Merry Christmas, Maddy!
December 24th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Too cute. I don’t think I would have had the patience to allow that too happen in my house…that girl really got to me. It ended well. Have a wonderful holiday!
December 24th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I think many people equate a lack of response with not hearing. Or, a smile with agreement. If your son can continue to use that to his advantage, his life will be much easier. I was an adult before a very wise frind taught me that smiling and not doing something was much easier than arguing and not doing it.
December 24th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hi there.
Merry Christmas to your family too!!!
Thanks for stopping by and reading our crazy posts!!!
Tell your daughter Happy Birthday!
December 24th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Children like adults have a hard time understanding some things. Rudeness is sometimes unavoidable though. Glad things went well.
December 24th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Oh I think I would have thrown that little girl out into the snow! If you had any. You are much more patient than I am. But - your son knew more than I was giving him credit for! Lol!
December 24th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Wishing you and yours peace and joy…or maybe just joy would be enough…now and in the new year!!!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Wow you held your temper quite well. Your son held his ground in a good way.
I can only make pokemon sounds after drinking my way through a marathon on cartoon network.
Merry Christmas!!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Maddy, Merry Christmas to you and yours!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Mery Christmas Maddy, thanks for leaving such nice comments on my blog. Have fun in England for the wedding!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Oh the coyness of the pre-teen girl. It’s just starting for some, and others have it honed to a fine art form, at ten. Whew.
December 24th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Oh my, I had forgotten how young they do the coy thing! Wonderful storytelling….precious children!!!
You and your family have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!
December 24th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Oh, you are so much nicer and more diplomatic than I. I don’t know if I ever would have gotten to witness that sweet ending because I would have been a total jerk to that girl earlier in the evening. Kudos to you for being an adult. I hope it was a wonderful party!
December 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
A nice end to what may have been a difficult story. Merry Christmas, Maddy!
December 24th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Mmmm, December birthdays. I just had mine, too. Woo-hoo! Your little guy is growing up fast.
December 24th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Neurotypical wimmin frighten me. And always have done so, even when they were girls and I was a boy. Your boy seems to have a handle on how to handle them, though.
December 25th, 2007 at 12:49 am
My 1st grader son has one of those pokemon books…he has finally stopped asking me to read it to him…since I read them with such boredom!
I think the second girl you wrote about is awesome…with much better skills at “catching a boy!” I have a REALLY hard time not
correcting kids when I think they’re being rude. You’re very patient!
December 26th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Hahaha! Still laughing at the whole scenario. Probably because I’m envisioning mine- girl trying to get her flirting practice, and Jaysen explaining the finer arts of Baby Einstein. Oh good grief, is this what I have to look forward to?!?
December 26th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I can’t imagine what I would have done if someone at my house ever dared call my brother deaf and taunt him about his disability! And I can’t believe you sat by just listening and it all turned out so nicely.
What a very cute story though, with such a happy ending. (Assuming he left his trousers in place the remainder of the night.)
December 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I found myself wanting to reach through the computer and slap that girl in the back of the head and snap, “Mind your manners. You’re acting like a jerk.” Which of course I would never do, but damn.