Saturday, April 24, 2010

My 6th child

No, I'm not pregnant, nor am I speaking of my husband (I find that mean).

I'm speaking of my neighbors son.  Matt is 14 and loves to come play with my kids.  He's a good one who would have done well with siblings, but his mother went through in vitro twice to get him.

We met Matt and 2 of his friends the day we moved in.  They were 9 and bored.  They offered to help us unload our truck.  They were fast.  We couldn't keep up.  We gave them $30 to split ( they had plans to go to a water park that afternoon).  After the truck was unloaded they went out front with a "boom box" (that word dates me) and started playing music.  My initial thought was not good about boys playing loud music.  Then we realized it was DC Talk's Jesus Freak.  Not my favorite song, but definitely acceptable.  For all I knew we were about to get Tupac.

Over the past (almost) 5 years, Matt has come over a lot.  He plays with the kids (and sometimes brings friends), camps out with our kids or his friends on our trampoline, plays flashlight tag in our back yard with his cousins, hangs out if he forgets his key on rainy days and so on.  He's a welcome friend and fun sudo addition to our family.

He's had one recent very funny affect on my boys that I must share.  Matt is still a skinny 14 year old, but he likes to rough house on the trampoline with his shirt off.  Now all of my boys think that if they are in the back yard they should be shirtless.

JR took V and Jack to the farm today, so it is just CAR and the twins and I.  I opened the back door to let the boys run in and out and even though it is a little cloudy and windy, making it chilly Owen and Xander took off their shirts an played in the back yard.  You can tell they look up to Matt.

1 comment:

Carina said...

We also have a neighbor boy who loves to come over. He plays with the kids and uses our computer and just generally acts like part of the family. He's getting old enough, though, that his visits are spread farther apart. (He'll be a sophomore next year.)

As another added funny, he was the ring bearer in my wedding. Would never have guessed that we'd by my parents old house someday and end up as his neighbor!