Boys Will Be Boys

My favorite napping spot in the house faces a window, in which the primary view is of my neighbor's house across the street. Sue and Dave have lived here for a number of years and have two sons - great kids. Good kids. Kids with a great deal of energy and intelligence and friends that congregate at their home. Kids that remind me a great deal of what my son and daughters were like at that age.

Although we always have considered their family as good friends and socialize with them quite a bit, I didn't have have the opportunity to really appreciate the boys until I was forced to spend time in my napping spot, staring grumpily out the window. I gradually came to realize that there was some seriously interesting shenanigans happening right across our street once the school bus stopped on our block at the end of the school day.

But alas, the days of having local emergency services on speed dial as I incredulously watched their antics are rapidly coming to a close. The school bus doesn't stop on our block because these guys have grown up and have their own cars. They pull up the driveway and lope into the house with backpacks slung over their shoulders. Friends show up in their cars, and they all head off to who knows where......sigh.

I miss seeing them hanging precariously from the highest branch of their willow tree, running around on the roof of the house shooting each other with Nerf guns, making a water slide out of a tarp, a hose, and some tent spikes, ooo and my favorite: the time they stuffed a kid in a metal trash can, slapped a bike helmet on his head (good thinking, guys) and sent him and the can rolling and rattling down the driveway. I was really lucky that their favorite spot was in the driveway, right smack dab in the middle of my line of sight. It was there that they and their buddies re-enacted fight scenes from their favorite movies, and videotaped all their school projects. "OK, now this time I get to be the reporter and you guys be the mummy embalmers.."

It all made me nostalgic for the days when my kids were that age - so confidently risking life and limb every day after school. 

Now they're growing up into unscathed, smart, attractive, well-behaved young adults.

The nerve.

Image found here.