First Crush

My son, Peter, is 7 1/2 and in second grade. He is your typical boy-loves soccer, video games, and any active game. Until this week, I could happily say that the girl bug had not bitten yet. Did you notice, I said until this week?

Peter has many cousins and is in the younger group. Because of this, he has often had his older cousins ask him who in his class he likes. His response:

I don't like girls-yet!

There was always that pause before the yet. I always thought it was so sweet. He understood it that right now girls were something he didn't want to give a second thought to, but that he knew one day he would. I am afraid that day has come.

He's had lots of questions lately about marriage. It occurred to him that his father and I have not been together forever. One of his oldest cousins, Joe, just got engaged. He knows that eventually he will meet a girl, fall in love, get married and have babies (and yes, he knows it is in that order! ;)

Then, I did my first lunch duty at school the other day. Nothing seemed different. He sat with his cousin, Tim, and his brother, Drew. When they were done, they headed out for recess, but there was one girl in his class who was straggling behind. I told her she needed to hurry up or she would miss recess. Her response, I guess Peter will just have to chase me! I stopped dead in my tracks. What do you mean, sweetie? (I am withholding her name to protect the innocent!) Oh, it's just a game we like to play. And she strutted off to go get chased by my son.

I thought that was then end of it. I thought that it was perhaps a one-sided crush-her side. Then the bomb dropped last night. He began talking about marriage and said, then your family becomes the Milbrath-Blank family. Again, Blank is not her last name, just there to show you that not only was he thinking about marriage, he was thinking about hyphenating. I used the opportunity to say that I chose not to hyphenate my name, but instead take my husband's.

So, I have entered the world of school crushes. A bit earlier than expected, but here none-the-less.