The long weekend began with Friday night Bobcat football and led into a Buckeye game, after which we squeezed in time with friends along the Ohio River before ending things at Buckeye Lake, driving home late Monday night with a homemade root beer float.
After tailgate Saturday we headed south to a little riverfront plot where kindness congregates. RiverFam gathers regularly in Grandview but there's something special about being away, on the water. Grownups moved effortlessly between kid duties and meal prep, from heavy conversation to silly jokes, pausing more than once to note how happy we were to be together. In addition to boat rides and the annual talent show, we harvested paw paws and Hank had his first water ski lesson!
Time in the car meant more Ted Lasso and after a few episodes Hank asked what "wanker" meant. Tuck explained in mere seconds, with a fairly accurate (fairly graphic) hand gesture. No one batted an eye. We've been trying, for years, to make the whole puberty ride feel ordinary and transparent, and this gave me faith in at least some moderate success.
The boys all genuinely enjoy words, fascinated by the sorcery of a well-chosen one. Of course there is nuance and etiquette, cursing as both a small way to try on power but also impolite or offensive to some. Our house doesn't sound like a convention of dumpster-mouthed sailors, but the boys are free to say what they think and feel.
Speaking of uncensored, Hank is reading the Hunger Game series and plans to watch the movies. I don't read aloud often, so miss that chance to talk about vocabulary. Instead of reading picture books or singing lullabies, I find myself mostly buying more tortilla chips and bleaching white socks. But what I had not anticipated was how much my children would fill the house with words and music - a boy on the third or fourth round of saying the exact same thing only louder, trying on foul language or singing in the shower, the regularity of tunes picked out on the guitar. There are also times when all I get is a three syllable response equivalent to the shrug emoji. I'm here for it, offering the gift of listening, an always audience.
This weekend also brought doubly good audition news for Tucker, cast in the GHHS fall play, Radium Girls, and selected for OMEA's All State Choir. We are proud and thrilled and aiming to say so carefully, without putting an enormous premium on his potential. He loves being on stage, and we love seeing him there. And that's enough.
After a lovely, full weekend we are basking in the deep luck that makes us feel like it's all divine. And looking, always, to spend more time with friends or with Ted Lasso, for an opportunity to hang with family or hit the next RBF *
(root beer float)
