When Scorch was 3, we enrolled him in pre-school. At the Open House a few weeks before school started, Scorch met  E and they’ve been best friends ever since. E and Scorch went to preschool together for 2 years before they went to different elementary schools for kindergarten. But thanks to small town living, it’s a rarity that the boys go longer than a week without seeing each other so their BFF status remains unchanged.  When Scorch started kindergarten, he met T, a new kid in his class.  So quickly Scorch had a school best friend (T) and another best friend (E) and all was well.

Well- all was well until E and T met through Scorch and then they became best friends too.  So over the past few months there has been lots of talk and tears and learning over what it means to be best friends with different people and how the dynamic sometimes changes when there are 3 little boys involved- each of whom are learning how to be good friends and have the maturity of a gnat.

This past weekend, Scorch had a playdate with E- just the two of them. And somehow they got on the topic of T and how sometimes it is hard to figure out who plays with who when the three of them get together.  E’s Mom told me that E got a little upset during the conversation, so he went up to his room and locked the everyone out, but that Scorch handled it just fine and was a good friend who got E smiling again before long.

On our drive home from the playdate, I complimented Scorch for being a good friend and for working hard to make E feel better.  Then I asked him what he did to get E smiling again.

Oh- it was easy! First, I went into his room, jumped into his dirty laundry basket, smelled his dirty clothes and told them they were delicious. Then I did a couple of arm farts and that did the trick.

So what I’m saying is, I think Pres. Obama may have a thing or two to learn from my kid when it comes to softening up the other side.

On Sunday we took the kids to mass as we always* do. As Catholics, this past week was really exciting with the election of the new Pope.  As Catholics with kids in a parochial school it was even more exciting because the kids were really into learning about the different Cardinals and trying to guess who would be the next leader of the church. According to Scorch, each class bet on who the winner would be (Scorch’s money was on Cardinal from Africa).  Scorch’s excitement carried over to mass this weekend as he vowed to pay closer attention to what was going on.

I was all for that until the questions started:

1) Mom, what’s a prostitute?

2) Why did Jesus go to hell for 3 days? Who usually goes to hell?

3) Why isn’t Father married? Can’t priests get married?

Really, kid? Really? You start paying attention for the first time in 6 years and these are the questions you start with?  I think we’ll stick with the nursery until I’m old enough to answer his questions!

*90% of the time.

Scorch is wearing a pair of sock today that, unbeknownst to me, has a hole in the toe.  Throughout the course of the evening, he’s picked at that little hole and made it into one big hole that three of his toes can stick out of.  It’s not a big deal- the socks are cheap 10 pack from Target and frankly, I don’t know how to darn / sew- so I told him to throw them in the garbage before bed. You would have thought I told him to go out and shoot the dog.

“No, Mom. These are special socks. I’m going to keep them in their own box and only bring them out on special occasions. Like Sundays.”

Oh…well, I had no idea. So glad he shared the specialness of his holy socks with me. Hope he’s not too disappointed when they share that specialness at the local dump soon!