Boyfriend

We went to the park after work today. The weather was balmy and beautiful, a reminder that Spring will be here eventually. The boys, like puppies penned up for too long, immediately started running around in circles, along with all the other newly released children who were also running around in circles.

Right away, Oldest approaches a little girl with a poofy skirt over leggings on the blocky jumpy climby thing.

"Oldest!" she squeals, very excited. Next she is pulling him by the sleeve to a man sitting on a bench. "Daddy! This is my boyfriend! From school! This is Oldest!"

"Oh, uh huh," mumbles the man, who is reading a book and looks a bit annoyed.

They run over to the teeter totter, where I catch up with them. Oldest is being coy.
"Is this your friend from school, O?"
"Yeah this is Erin from school."
"We go to school together we're in kindergarten together I'm so excited to see you here!" gushes the girl.
They're off again, running and running, Surprise tagging along behind and trying to keep up.

Eventually they sit down on the pirate boat. The girl hands Hubby a pile of rocks that she gathered after finding out that Surprise collects them. (He loves his rocks, and will lay them out in a row on the floor and talk to them: "hi wocky! how are you today? I love you, wocky!"). She puts her arm around Oldest.
"Hey!" I whisper to Hubby. "I think she like, really likes him."
"Yeah, they seem to be good friends."
"No, I mean, LIKES him. She keeps putting her arm around him."
"Well, maybe he's popular with the girls. He's thin and good looking."
"Hmmm." My BABY? Popular with the girls? Thin and good looking?
"He always says he doesn't like girls."
"Well, maybe he's starting to. Maybe they're starting to like him."
"Yeah he is good looking" I say. "But he's a little weird."
"That doesn't matter until high school."
"True." Oh so true!
"Surprise will do pretty well, too" says Hubby.
"Yep. And Surprise is more mainstream." It's true. Surprise will be the jocky, cute, boy, pretty normal. Er, except for the rock thing.
"Yeah, and Oldest will be the alternative geek," says Hubby (who played alternative geek so well in high school...thank goodness I've only seen him wear that weird hat in pictures) proudly.

We go to the swings. The girl's father is still at the bench buried in his book.
"Can you push me?" she asks me.
"Uh..." I get nervous about pushing kids who are not mine on swings. Still haven't figured out the protocol. Is it OK? Should I ask permission first? Can I get sued for this?
I push her. Then a little boy, maybe 3 or so, comes over and wants the same swing. She turns vicious, pushing him and whining. Oh boy, definite lawsuit material here. Where are their parents?
Hubby gently scolds the girl, also worried. But then a lightbulb goes off.
"Hey Erin," I ask. "Is this your brother?"
"Yeah!" she grunts, still trying to eject him from the swing.
Phew! That explains it then. I can't possibly get sued if she beats up her own brother. Can I? Doesn't matter, they're off and running again until it's time to go home.
"Bye Oldest!! Bye! See you tomorrow!"
"Bye," says Oldest. Oh so coolly.
"Bye Ewin! Bye Ewin! Bye bye bye!" yells Surprise.
At the car, I ask Oldest if that's his girlfriend. "Well yeah!"
"Do you have other girlfriends too?"
"Well, yeah!"

On the way home, we drove down our little main street and there were people out walking around, enjoying the break from winter.

"We should walk around down here, when it gets warmer. We could walk down here at night and go to a bar."
We're both startled into silence. The idea of just walking into a bar, without arranging for a sitter or doing all the million other things you have to do just to get out of the house, is as foreign as going to Mars.
"Maybe when the kids are bigger."
Something to look forward to, even though I'd rather have them stay little.