This, That, and the BoyChild

I'm long, long, long overdue a BoyChild update.

Mr. Fashion would have a fit if he knew I posted this pic!

But this is my boy - this is the boy I love through and through, this is my heartbeat.

My sweet nephew Aaron.

New readers might want to read this - 

Aaron is doing terrific.  He's 17.5 years old now and adapting to Chicago pretty good.  He wants to come home every weekend though, and that just thrills me.  His mom (they are really getting along well!) picks him up and drops him off here on Saturday evenings after school, and then I have him til she picks him back up on Monday evening to get him home in time for classes Tuesday morning.

The child is obsessed with hair.

This is the boy that never brought a school book home, and caused me to go prematurely gray trying to homeschool his behind.  Thank goodness he can now color it!

This is the boy that wouldn't memorize his multiplication table even when I offered him $100 to do it.

Now?

He rolls out of bed on Sunday morning and hits the books and plays with dummy heads and talks to me non-stop about vertical slices and color formulations.

If he's awake - he's talking about, doing, reading about, or watching hair tutorials.

Here's a terrible picture of my extensions so far.  What a flipping process!  They aren't done yet.  He is now color matching them to my real hair - and then he'll attach them next time he's here.  I'm thinking I might love this.  He had it in a fishtail braid at one point.  Mercy.  I'm scheduling an appointment for breast augmentation as soon as I get my spray tan and gel nails this afternoon.

Aaron continues to break my heart and put it back together again.

He treats me to Starbucks now.

Breaks my heart for some reason - it's hard to let him spend his money on me.

On Mother's Day he bought me a card with his money.  I think that was the first time my sister didn't buy it for him.  : -)  

Here's what he wrote in my card:

My heart was trashed.

Father's Day?  He bought Glenco a gift.

Heart trashed again.

I loved what he wrote in his mom's card, and if you knew all what my sister has gone through with the child...well...he wrote 'Thanks for loving me through all of my bullsh*t'.

What I loved more than anything was his acknowledgement of his bullsh*t.

:-)

So, growing up he is, and I have to ask you - how do you let them?

How do you not remind them to wash their sheets, and eat right, and get plenty of sleep.

How do you remember what you were like at 17, and how grown up you felt?

How?

This is what I know for sure.

I love Aaron.

It's an absolute, unconditional, I don't need anything in return, kind of love.  He's opened my mind and my heart in more ways than I knew were ever possible.

My chest is literally aching now, just typing this.

Law and mercy.

I should stop now...but just a quick this and that.

My poison ivy is much better!  Three more days of steriods.

I just look completely scabby.

Now - I have a bladder infection.  The antibiotics I'm on gave me diarrhea.   

My hormones are keeping me up half the night.

I'm swollen from the steroids.

My crotch is on fire (I'm sorry - it's just the truth)

I'm urinating blood. 

Again...sorry TMI.

I have about 14 things half done today.

I keep trying to work, and I just don't feel well.

Ya think?

Sat in the inner sanctum office at the Dr.s for a good half an hour yesterday - and I couldn't take the mess.

Good thing the furniture was bolted down.

The cleanse has started and is officially closed for now.  I'll let you know when I'll reopen it to more people.  I actually have a plan for it (!!) and it would be too hard for new people to keep jumping in during it.

So there's my update.

It's gorgeous here in Indiana and I should be out on the tractor, but it hurts my innards.

I'm trying to allow myself rest time to heal.

Why is that so hard?