It's Official

The Child has a boyfriend.

She's been friends with The Boy for 2 years. He's the one who asked her to do something after her first Snow Ball and they've been hanging out ever since. While she has sometimes admitted to having a little bit of a crush on him, that seemed to come and go. Mostly he was just a good friend who took her (with his Uncle - who's his guardian) to do cool stuff.

Then something shifted.

She'd gone off with The Boy and Uncle for the day to do Irish-y things. When they returned I was in the midst of preparing the corn beef & cabbage. Our dinner guests arrived. We invited Boy and Uncle to stay. So the adults are all chatting in the kitchen, the kids are all in the family room and The Spouse goes in to put on some music. He returns giggling.

The Boy had his arm around The Child, something he immediately stopped doing when The Spouse walked in. The Spouse gave him the "I've got my eyes on you" gesture and left. Giggling, as I said.

That's when Uncle confirmed that there'd been a conversation wherein the word order of "friend who is a girl" had changed. And we all agreed that we were ok with it because they are good kids. Although we also instituted a "no closed doors" rule. It's nice that we can talk with Uncle and are on the same page about what it appropriate and what isn't. It's also really superfantastic that the kids have been friends for so long. As The Spouse said, the best relationships are the ones born out of friendship.

Yesterday, on the way in to church, I asked The Child if she had anything to tell me. She got a very stricken look. "No".

"You sure? Nothing you want to tell me at all".

She looked like I'd been going through her drawers and found a pack of Lucky Strikes. "Nothing".

"I think there might be something. And for what it's worth, you're not in trouble".

She was silent.

"Something about The Boy?"

"Ohhhh," she said, immediately grinning from ear to ear and blushing.

And then she talked. And it was very cute.

And yes, it's a little freaky. We are now playing a whole new ball game and I'm not so sure spring training lasted long enough. Limits, rules, prayer, communication...these are all staples upon which we've relied in the last 13 years. The foundation is pretty solid. But still. This is big stuff.

I told Uncle that if I were to hand-pick a first boyfriend for The Child, I couldn't do better than The Boy. He's sweet, a little shy, scary smart, funny, very kind. They are interested in a lot of the same things. And you can tell that he likes her.

So there you go. Fortunately, we only have to tackle one day at a time. I'm not shopping for my mother-of-the-bride dress. This is, however, one of those milestones that makes me realize once again how swiftly the time goes. That MOTB dress is at least 10 off. But when you talking about a child growing up, that is no time at all.



"My Little Girl"