10 Days til Not-So-SmallBoy

...or NSSB, as we've decided. My sweet SmallBoy will turn 10 a week from Monday. Oh, I've planned my posting already, gotta dig up some TeenyBoy pics, don't know how many I have that are uploadable (is that word?). I am trying to instill this sense of "big kid" in him to help boost his confidence and independence. I've been asking him for a few months what I was going to do with him not being a small boy anymore, what I would call him. I told him that we can't call him LargeBoy, cuz, well, that's his brother and MediumBoy just sounds too weird. So we settled on Not-So-SmallBoy. After everyone's caught on, we'll just abbreviate to NSSB. I think he's excited about the change. He's gaining his independence well. I've started letting him walk home from school by himself (with Girl shadowing far enough back that she can see him, but without him knowing he's being followed), and I can see his sense of responsibility for himself beginning to increase. Wow! Amazing what a few years can do.

Ex still isn't taking him. I talked to him yesterday about his weekend with the kids and the Friday pick up, and said, "Since you're still not taking your son, you have to wait to pick up LargeBoy and Girl until I get home from work." He said, "Yeah, whatever. I'll talk to you about that tomorrow." Gee, I can't wait. I've been mulling over all of the possible things he could say to me "about that." Unless it's, "I'm going to start seeing my son again," my response is going to be, "Ok. You'll be hearing from my attorney." (Expecting huge screaming and yelling and him calling me nasty names in front of the children unfortunately, but PC will be there to keep me calm, but crap, I'm out of wine to calm me down afterwards).

But my SmallBoy knows how much we love and adore him. I'm so proud of him.