With Bruises on Both Knees

So far, what I know about the Cub Scouts is that it’s very loud and the kids have plenty of time to chase each other around the school cafeteria. That’s the basic gist of the Pack meetings I have attended thus far. They do try to use that “2 fingers in the air” trick to quiet the boys down, but it does nothing, I’m afraid, to quiet the talkative parents, and that is a shame.

I’ve always thought that trick was pretty ingenious, myself. I’m a shusher, admittedly. Sometimes I kind-of horrify myself because I’ll shush a group of adults as if they’re children (in the choir loft before Mass starts, for example). But my goodness, people, SHHHH! There are microphones, and no choir needs to be heard as they gossip about the parishioners or chatter about yesterday’s college football games! Yi-yi-yi. Shh. As soon as I do it, I’m embarrassed for being the goody-goody, but on the other hand… *two fingers in the air*

Anyway, the Cub Scouts. Last night was their Halloween party, so they were extra excited. Costumed kids – I saw a Billy Idol, a Shaun White, several white-masked, black-hooded ghouls and the 6-year-old store-bought superheroes -- played some toss-the-ghost-into-the-pumpkin games for candy and pencil prizes. It was like, the best night of their LIVES. (No, I take that back: the first meeting, when they “built” “rockets” out of construction paper and then LAUNCHED them into the night sky with one of those air pedal thingys – THAT was probably the best night of their lives. But this was a close second.)

In other words, Cub Scouts is going exactly as it should be. :) Boys, snips, snails, etc. The first camping trip coming up in two weeks. I am incurably romantic about the boy-and-his-father bond, relative to scouting. The dads who are den leaders just warm my heart, wearing their uniforms and saluting with the boys as they introduce and then retire The Colors. Lovvvvvve. Respect and Good Citizenship: I am FOR. I am very eager for DH and AJ to share this overnight experience. I hope it will be fun for both of them, and I’m mildly jealous that I can’t be a fly on the tent wall, but I imagine AJ being nervous when he hears the nighttime noises of the forest, and DH being the strong, calming presence. I also imagine there will be some silly camping antics, throwing of rocks into the fire, the requisite lesson on peeing in the bushes, and all that other boy stuff.

It starts with blue blankets, then dinosaurs and trains, and then progresses to this stage, and I don't know if it's just all so NEW for me, as a girl who grew up without any brothers, but I still just really love having a little boy.