8 year old boys

Offspring and Pal (I'm trying to think of a blog name for his best friend, so Pal will be it unless I think of a better one) are joined at the hip lately. Every single day after school they burst out of the doors of school and run to me and ... hmmm, I need a blog name for Pal's mom, anyway for now, Pal's mom, and BEG BEG BEG to play together. Every. Day. And I mean every day. Usually we relent unless there is some other commitment - and as she and I both talk about, we have the only child syndrome going on in both of our houses. And when that only child is a very boisterous boy, it can be very very tiring for the mom. Strangely enough, when there are two maniacal little boys, it is easier than one. That is, they play with each other instead of pestering you to play with them. And you only have to just keep an ear out to make sure no one breaks a bone or break up verbal fist fights on occasion. So anyway, we go to a building class every other Saturday at Lowe's with them - this week was a time capsule. They had alot of fun building it, even though we were late because it took forever to eat at IHOP across the street. Wheeler was a dork and ordered the wrong thing, but that didn't really contribute to the delay. I just wanted to point that out to be mean.

So anyway, Pal and Offspring were going to play after Lowe's but as it turned out, they couldn't play until 3:30. In little boy time this is equal to approximately 7.4 years. During that 7.4 years, we went over to the pet store, and then on a whim I called the Picture People and they had an opening at 12:40. Schlepped over there and got Offspring's photos taken. I have always taken him on a moment's notice, this is actually the first time I called instead of just showing up. He did GREAT, he smiled, was adorable and we got some really good photos. I got a number of them blown up and framed. He is so photogenic, and I don't say that just because he's my kid ... or maybe I do, I dunno. Either way, I still look at him sometimes and think "I done good".

A side note: we were at a mall that we don't normally go to, its an older mall in the area relatively speaking and I HATE it. I was reminded how much I hate by going there, I honestly can't remember the last time I was there, I am quite sure it was far more than a year ago. It was filled to the gills with baby teenagers. Little bitty teenagers who were carefully casual, a studied nonchalance that was so obvious (to everyone but them). Little social rituals being carried out, coy giggles, pushing and shoving flirtatiously, exagerrated looks, etc. It reminded me of how much we humans are just animals after all, the same as other animals preening so as to mate. Teenagers annoy me. Too bad I'm going to be the parent of one soon.

After we were there, waiting around for the prints etc, it was almost time for Pal to be ready to play. We stopped at the dog park for Dog to play because he had been with us all day and was sooo good. He played like crazy and then we went home. Thankfully, almost as soon as we got home Pal's mom called and said Pal was ready to come play. I say thankfully because every 10 seconds from the time we got home until she called Offspring would say "Is Pal ready to come yet?" or "Can you call Pal's mom?" or "When is Pal coming?" or "Can we go check if he's home yet?". That gets annoying real fast. So anyway, she came over with Pal and dropped him off, after which little boy heaven commenced. They played Wii for a short bit, then our neighbor across the street gave us (yes gave us, as in for free) a really nice big basketball hoop - ball included! - and so the boys went out and went gonzo for basketball. They played for a long time and were sweaty and panting when they came in. I let them play Wii for about 20 minutes to cool down and then we went bowling, which I had promised earlier in the day.

When Pal first arrived, he said that he didn't want to go bowling. I figured I could change his mind. How? Don't ask him if he wants to go - ask him what kind of pizza he wants there. Pizza?!?! CHEESE! Then Offspring yells PEPPERONI! I told them we could get half and half (hoping that one could, and yes, we could as it turned out). We all bowled, and we all used bumpers. After 10 frames, I was the winner with a whopping score of 79. Pal got 63, Offspring got 59. Yes, I got 79 with bumpers. I suck at bowling, obviously. But we had a really good time. Offspring was hilarious (unwittingly) because he would slide up there in style and wing it down the lane, practically doing the splits and staying there until the ball hit the pins, after which he was joyously pump his arms and say OH YEAH!!! with a big loopy grin. Pal was funny too because he was walk up to the lane looking as though he was lost at sea, looked around and then would throw the ball down the lane. As in throw - not roll. He just may as well thrown it overhand for as hard as it hit the lane. Then he'd watch it roll down and when it hit the pins he'd look totally stunned that he'd hit them. He would then do a victory dance, and the two of them would mock (deservingly so) my pathetic score. If not for the fact that I got one strike, I probably would have lost against two 8 year olds, all while using bumpers. We (they) played video games, ate pizza, had slushies, bowled, a boy's idea of heaven (until they become the aforementioned baby teenagers.... god help me).

On the way home, they were SO funny. I just listened, pretending that I wasn't, and here was the gist of their conversation.

You know what - my friend said that he burped so loud that his whole house fell down. 

No way!

Yeah-huh, he said they had to build a new house and everything.

Nuh-uh.

Have you ever burped that loud?

BBBBUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPPP!! 

This was the answer my child provided. At this point, most unfortunately I laughed. I simply could not help myself, I tried very very hard not to, but I didn't succeed in squelching my giggle. It was a belly laugh actually, I nearly drove off the road laughing (or rather, trying not to laugh).

Whoa! You even made YOUR MOM laugh. 

Yeah, my mom laughs at burps and farts.

Whoa! SHE DOES?

Yeah. Hey - Pal, what would you do if everything in the world was free?

(big saucer eyes here, I could see them in the rearview mirror)

Free?!?!? 

Yeah, EVERYTHING.

Whoa. I would get like 100 Wii games and 100 DS games, take them all home and play all night.

Yeah, wow, that would be totally awesome. I'd get 1 million Wii games!

Well I'd get every Wii game they make! 

What if you assidentally got locked in the mall all night? (Offspring consistently mispronounced a few words, and accidentally is one of them, as is magazine (mazagine) and taken (tooken)). I'd, like, go to the toy store and stay there all night playing with the toys. 

Whooaaaa. All those toys. 

Yeah. 

Satisfied silence.

Whoa.

Silence.

Let's talk about if everything was free again! 

OK!

Then, another discussion of all the Wii games they would buy (have) if everything was free ensued. Ahhh, to be 8 years old.