Mortified

Apparently Mr W is growing up. I was taking him to camp last week and on the way from the car to the door of camp, we saw the older sister of one of his friends. I called out to her, and waved my hands to say hi. My thinking at the time is that she's a semi-dramatic tweener and would appreciate my little show of flair.

We got into Mr W's room and he is visibly upset. I have no idea what's going on, but he is beside himself and I can't recall having seen him like this before. I pull him aside and say, "What's going on?" He says something to the effect that I embarrassed him by waving my arms and that he does NOT like the friend's sister.

Wha?

And then I get it. He's got a crush on this girl and took my actions as trying to draw attention to HIM. I had no idea. I had to pull him aside again after he walked away. He asked if I would go and tell her that what I did had nothing to do with him, and I advised that it was probably better just to let it drop.

On my way back to the car, I thought about how this is sort of the first manifestation of a crush that I've seen in him, and that I was relieved that it was on a girl. I love him of course no matter what, and accept him for who and what he is no matter what, but I think it's easier in this world to make your way if you're in the majority for something like that.

Last night, I went to a baseball game with the single parent group. Mr W was camping with his dad as part of a schedule change, but I had planned the event so I went. There's a guy there who has a daughter the same age as Mr W and we commiserate about them together. The daughter is high on drama and is awkward at the same time, which makes for interesting interactions. At one point, I was going to tell her that her team got a run, and when I said her name, she turned around and said "What?!" in that tweener way that's like fingers on a chalkboard. Oy. Sort of glad I've got a boy to deal with. :-)