I Can’t Handle the Truth

Sometimes the 4 1/2 years that separates my boys doesn’t matter much. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t at the same stage, but they can play together and enjoy some of the same things. This is the first weekend I’ve really noticed the gap. Now that Christian is at the Middle School, there are parties, sleep-overs, football games, and invites from friends to go and do fun things. He’s having a blast. Jackson isn’t quite old enough for sleep-overs, and he rarely leaves this house with anyone but us. The triplets birthday party was this weekend (Happy Birthday y’all!) and he did attend, but spent almost the entire afternoon glued to my leg. I thought he was just being shy because he didn’t have his brother there as a sidekick, but after a few complaints about his nose feeling stuffy, we left a little early. By that night, he had a fever and was content to just snuggle on the couch with Mom and Dad. Lucky for all his friends, not feeling good exacerbates his shyness and he and his stuffy nose mostly stayed away. So while Christian was out on the town all weekend, Jackson hung with us. He didn’t mind. He got to go to Wal-mart a couple times, and not one of those lousy food trips, the good kind where he comes home with something he likes. He got to take a pool bath on the night he didn’t have a fever. He went to a party. We built Lego stuff. He played in the neighborhood with some of the other kids. He watched a movie with us, and he hung with Christian and his friends when they came home. He never complained, well, except about the stuffy nose and fever, because he’s still at the stage where we are the coolest thing in town. I dread the day he learns the truth.