I'm Glad I Didn't Strangle Him...

I got up this morning as I usually do - 6:15 hit the snooze button, 6:30 wake up Michael and watch "Wings" on the USA network, 6:45 send Michael to get dressed, 7:00 begin the long and painful task of waking Frank up, 7:15 yell at Frank that he really, really, REALLY needs to get up NOW, and 7:25 send both of them on their way to get Michael to school. Then comes the hard part...waking up the teen. This is never an easy task because he does NOT want to get up but on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, he HAS to get up for classes.

So I go in and wake him up. Five minutes later I wake him up again. By the third time I'm quite snippy and remind him that he needs to shower (which he finds enough strength to argue about) and then I end up yelling. Not a good way to start the day. He finally does get up and gets ready, I get ready and we leave. He has a British Lit class at 9:45. He's not acing the class but he's not failing either. He's just sort of middle-of-the-road. While waiting for class I get an e-mail with his Algebra 2 grades - same situation. I'm not impressed. I share his grade with him and then remind him that he has a British Lit test today. "Yeah, I know," he says while blaring some music from his iPod. "Well why don't you study?" I ask. "I already did," he replied while starting to bang his head to the obnoxious tune.

Now, don't get me wrong, parents, it's not that I DOUBT that he studied, it's just that...well...if he were acing the class then I wouldn't care about his wasting time listening to music but he's NOT. I'm thinking the extra study time would be a GIFT. I point this out to him and he's like "You know, I'm getting really tired of you always telling me that I'm not doing enough."

Excuse me?

Um...YOU'RE tired of ME?

This would be the point where I was ready to leap over the counter, tackle him to the ground and choke him senseless!!!

But I didn't. I refrained. I held it together until he went in to class and then called my buddy Michelle so that she could talk me down from the ledge. Both of our first-borns are the same - they want to put in as little of an effort as possible and yet be praised and worshiped just because they breathe. HA! So not gonna happen, kiddies! Anyway, she did calm me down and I was able to go about the rest of my business with happy thoughts in my head.

After class my mom called from the Hospice and we decided to let Nick try and talk to grandma and see if she responded. So far I think I am the only voice on the phone that she has responded to but we wanted to try. Nick was not handling it well. I handed him the phone and sort of prompted him on things to say and all the while he held my hand...tightly...so tight that I still have not regained full use of it! But grandma did respond to his voice - she blinked! I thought it was cool but he took it pretty hard. As soon as he got off the phone he walked away. I found him in the back office with his girlfried, clearly upset. I had to remind him that he did a good thing and that it meant a lot to grandma to hear his voice. I appreciated his willingness to leave his comfort zone and do something selfless.

It's good to see him do that once in a while.