Reflections by AquaLady

July 18 / Wed.

Yesterday was Mike’s 17th birthday, & if I’m not mistaken, I think we ‘ruined his life’ again. I was out & about pretty much all day & so he got to spend it home alone. He asked me to wake him before I left for work, which I did. I also left some treats in the frig for him…& hung some signs around wishing him a Happy… Later I learned that he slept in which is fine with me.

He had plans to go golfing with some friends when I got home from work, which we agreed on well in advance. So, when I came home with the car, he left to go golfing. Tuesdays are scout days & Mike said that if he got back in time that he’d be at the meeting. I was planning to go anyway, had some Relay patches to give to the boys, so I decided to bake some cupcakes & have a little ‘surprise’ party for Mike at the scout meeting.

The guys really liked my cupcakes. They asked what the occasion was & I said that we were celebrating Mike’s birthday. Robin, the scout leader, shared some of the troop’s soda which was leftover from their week at camp so we really did have ourselves a nice little social event. The only thing is…Mike never showed up for the meeting so we partied without him.

I guess it was close to 8 PM or so when Mike got home from golfing. He said that the guys also went out to eat & that was cool. Earlier, I had asked Mike to think about where he wanted to go out to eat for his birthday (meaning with Jim & me) but we hadn’t counted on him eating out with the guys so I didn’t make any supper & so Jim & I ate leftovers in the frig. Not a bad thing because we needed to slack off especially after eating all that food over the weekend (we went to a buffet & you know how filling they can be…especially when it’s one of those ALL you can eat deals).

Anyway, we sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mike & gave him his gifts. He’d been bugging me for months that he wanted to set up his OWN aquarium so…that’s what I got him, a starter 10-gal. deluxe kit with light included. No sooner did he finish opening gifts when the words shot out of his mouth like a high-speed bullet… “Can I go to Doug’s”? It was already 9 PM when this occurred & Jim & I were on the same track...thinking it was kinda late & so Jim spoke up first & said, "No".

Sulk-ville USA from then on in. I happened to go down the basement to throw in some laundry & I guess I’m just an easy target because that’s when Mike unloaded on me & complained about how this was all so unfair. This occurred around 10 PM.

Parenting! ARGHHH...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!