Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Boys


I have two nephews and a son, and they are as different in personalities as they are in appearance. This picture is several years old, but you get the idea: a redhead, a blonde, and the dark-complected one.
The middle guy there is nephew #1, Mr. Teen. He loves loud, obnoxious music (to be honest I don't know what kind, but it just sounds like noise to me). He is into skateboarding. He spends all his indoor time on MySpace. And this week, he got his lip pierced. I am giving him lots of grief about the fact that he nearly passed out having it done, and he doesn't mind. He lets me make fun of him as long as I keep making him tie-dye T-shirts. He is excited about this coming summer because for the first time he has a car and a job, and he might actually get to do something!
The redhead is All Boy. He loves to play army, climb trees, build go-carts, and eat a lot. He actually gets up early in the morning before school so he can play outside for a while before he has to catch the bus. Last fall he broke his upper arm trying to make the football team. Two weeks ago he gashed his arm while trying to clean up broken glass (he kicked an aquarium). He sent me camera-phone pictures of his arm and the bloody towels. He's thoughtful that way. Yesterday he broke his forearm when he was out running and tripped over his dog. He wants to come and spend at week at my house, which he thinks will be loads of fun. He forgets that after about an hour here, he is bored. He likes to be outside, and my son, blonde GeekBoy, has a favorite saying: "I went outside once, but the graphics weren't all that great."
GeekBoy only goes outside when he is required to mow the lawn, or to get the mail when he thinks he might have a new game coming from Gamerang. He spends nearly every waking moment either playing video games, or playing online games. He does sometimes take time out to use some of the thousands of Legos in his room to build the creatures from his gaming, or to watch the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. He is the only one of the three boys who still wears glasses, because he shudders at the thought of touching his eyeball and couldn't care less about his appearance. He has become Mr. Safety, and has been known to stick his head out of the car window to yell at other kids who are skateboarding without helmets. He is horrified by the thought that he will be old enough to drive this fall and we might actually ask him to learn how.
So I will continue to harass Mr. Teen via MySpace, just to keep him humble, I'll take All Boy to the amusement park and let him ride all the rides until we're exhausted, and I'll start remodeling the basement so GeekBoy will have a place to live after college.

1 comment:

crazymom said...

Let me in!