Okay, here's a re-cap of our family situation, for those of you who may not have been following along. The husband has two sons from a previous marriage. The older boy is technically his step-son, (though only a baby when he was married) and is therefore not covered by any sort of custody agreement. And while we will always consider him a member of the family (you divorce wives, not children) he only visits when he wants to, which is becoming less frequent due to the fact that he is 17, has a job and girls to chase and things like that. (We don't take it personally.)
The younger son, however, is a different story. He was supposed to visit every other weekend, every other holiday and two weeks in the summer. Luckily, the husband and his ex-wife parted on good terms and have agreed to throw the "decree" out the window. He was visiting as often (or as sparingly) as he wanted, or as often as was convenient for both sets of parents, as his mother and step-father live approximately an hour away from us. Pretty much boiled down to every other holiday, about 1-2 weekends a month, and most of the summer.
But NOW...he has decided to come live here with us. He has been here most of the summer already, not counting a week or two back with his mom. Before, when he was visiting, he would share the angel's room, as the peanut's stuff was in the smaller room. With this kind of permanence, we moved the peanut's crib to our bedroom (he was sleeping in there anyway) and freed up some space for Brother 2.
I also had the joy of taking him in to register for high school. (he will be in 9th grade starting Monday!) This is the same high school I attended (only 14 years ago!), and many of the same teachers are still there!
This is going to be quite the change for all of us, and I'm sure it will give me plenty of blog fodder. So, I am re-naming Brother 1 and 2, in honor of this change. From now on, Brother 1 (the 17 year old) will be known as the Sailor, because he has decided to join the Navy after he graduates this May. And Brother 2 will be know as the Teen. (Let the eye rolling and angst begin!)
So, to sum up, we now have two adults, one infrequent sailor, one 9th grader, one 2nd grader and one 5 month old living in a 3 bedroom townhouse. Sounds crazy? Try living it! (insert maniacal laughter here)
I'd also like to wish the Teen a very happy 14th birthday! (tomorrow) His gift, a new cell phone. (His old one had a run-in with some water...not good.)
And I'd also like to ask all of you to wish me luck with parenting a teenager. I still feel like one myself...minus the ability to text 70 words a minute.
2 comments:
The Teen is a sweet boy and I'm sure at times (say 3 AM when he's not home and you have to go looking for him) it will be trying, but just remember...I know all your stories and you can't get away scott free! Insert childhood friend ninja rolling across the floor because Dad had shined the big yellow van's headlights into the livingroom window...'nough said!
Good luck on having an instant teen, and hopefully this will give you some valuable insight for when the Angel gets to be that age!
Best of luck! At least he is only a freshman...that will give you some time to ease into the transition. :)
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