The Birds and the Bees

 Alex has developed a new affinity for after-school naps as of late...to the casual onlooker, this may seem to correlate with the rain that has been falling (and falling and falling) in Portland for the past week. But as his mother, I suspect there is something bigger happening. When Alex finds something he is interested in, he latches on with an intensity that can bend steel. He'll mill and question, consider and obsess, until he's moved onto the next thing that fascinates or confounds him...and repeat. Well, my friends, this newest fascination is a doozy.... and that new fascination is S-E-X, compliments of his new sex ed. class in school. Now, I have fostered an environment of openness in our family that I'm very proud of, no topic too big or small to be discussed...but because there are no topics we won't discuss, Alex thinks....well.... that we should discuss. And although I've been painfully open with the finer points of sex with my older child, you'd think I'd be prepared for a grenade being lobbed at me unexpectedly as I make dinner. It looked a little something like this:

Alex:.....Mom, I have a question....

Me: OK, kiddo.What's up?

Alex: Well...it's about sex. You know, some people think sex is dirty and some think it has something to do with religion or something....do you think sex is dirty?

Me: *shock* *silence*...I can almost see the thought bubble with the word HUH.....?! over my head as I try to figure out how we've made an abrupt left turn from talking about video games to the morality of sex. I began to tap dance with my mouth because I was suddenly faced with a very important conversation and I'd met the moment bewildered while holding a sweet potato.  I rambled more hoping that he could pick out the important details....stuff about how sex is far from dirty. That it's a perfectly natural and special experience to be had by two consenting adults. You know...the stuff you're supposed to say. I wondered if I sounded as shrill I seemed to in my own ears. Apparently, he didn't notice because he proceeded to describe the finer points of coupling to me with wide-eyed wonderment.

And it's continued. He's innocently cornered Tim in the kitchen...Tim...? What is masturbation....? (I heard Tim doing his own version of the tap dance as Sydney and I quietly giggled from the bedroom.). He's managed to yell across a crowded parking lot to a neighbor who asked how he was doing, and was met with: Terrible! I'm learning about sex at school!...

He's taking this whole sex subject very seriously. So he's sleeping. Sleeping it off. Given the way this is shaping up, the whole family may have to follow his lead on this one.

Catch Up and Cave Dwelling

I can't believe it's been six weeks since I put words out into the blogosphere! There's a good reason for that actually.For the entire month of April, I came home from work so exhausted that all I was really good for was dropping onto the couch into what looked remarkably like a coma every single night. Plus, there was Sydney's intense dance schedule that lead up to her big production and Alex's soccer and lacrosse to add to the mix. I was so burnt out by the end of the month that if there had been a traveling circus that happened upon my staggering, bleary-eyed shell on the way to my car one morning, I would have done my best to convince them that I am a hell of a lion tamer and left everything else in the dust. (Apparently, children aren't the only ones that consider running away.)

May's been crazy too (I'm seeing an unfortunate pattern here) but at least it's been fun. My parents were in town which meant some adventuring was in order.

Besides a fun day at the zoo....

Alex and his cousin, Kendra

Alex and my dad (and me heckling in the background)

Kendra and Alex in spaaaaaaaaace!

...A surprise Mother's Day High Tea from my wonderful brothers.....

.....Sydney's big dance performance (in which she was one of the leads) and the celebrating of her 15th birthday.....

 ...We skipped over to Washington for a day to explore the Ape Caves. In our naivety, we collectively thought we were going for a long, leisurely walk in the dark of a cave for the day, the big surprise being that it turned out to be mostly scaling over boulders in the dark for miles (which was a fun surprise for me because I used to spelunk in my younger days). I have to say, no one was more surprised than my mother whose entire worldly 'boulder scaling' resume before that consisted of tripping over rocks in her driveway. She was a real trooper though; she seemed to consider having Search and Rescue come get her and carry her out only once that I could count. I can honestly say that I never in my wildest dreams expected to spelunk with my mother. I am relatively certain that hell hath frozen over. And here is the proof.

One mountain of boulders down....345 to go