AUDIO: A Letter to Aidan - Your first girlfriend!

 

2012 was a year of firsts, a year of giant leaps and a year of growing up in fast forward. It wasn’t only the year that you went to school and learnt to read and write and do maths. It also brought along your first girlfriend.

Just as I thought we survived Grade 1 with all our limbs and our sanity still in tact, trust you Aidan to spring one last surprise on me. In October, you got a girl friend – a little girl one year younger than you! A beautiful little girl with a neat pony tail and a big smile ….. with no front teeth.

At first I didn’t notice anything different – we were house friends and you two would see each other often apart from the normal school breaks. You were in any case always hugging the girls and the teachers and the other moms, so there was nothing out of the ordinary there either. I suppose you charm meter was working over time since you were very young, Mister.

Then you started telling me how you would make sure she was okay during break and you would even carry her lunch box to where she would be sitting with her friends. Even that didn’t raise any suspicion – you were good friends.

A few weeks later and you would pick her up in the mornings when we bumped into each other and try to carry her to her class. Or put your hand around her shoulders and steer her in the right direction. Ah, look at protective Aidan.

When we would drive home past their house, you would remind me that that was the beautiful house of beautiful Jayden. And I would smile, thinking how cool it was that you knew where everybody lived. Totally oblivious me.

The first real alarms went off when you were all in the swimming pool after school one hot afternoon. That was exactly what you were, my boy, red hot in love. Your eyes were so glassy every time you saw her, I doubted whether you could actually see her. You carried her towel around, made sure her goggles were fitting perfectly and shaded her from the sun. The two of you would sit apart on the patio, drinking your juice in silence while the other kids were going mad in the pool – as if you were bored with child’s play and were seeking out some deep topics of conversation.

My heart skipped a beat – I was now also hot under the collar, the heat wave seemed to have spread. Do I break this up and take you home or do I pretend not to notice? Luckily, her mom felt the same. The two of us eyed each other and started giggling. What now? Does she think my son is a good enough boyfriend? Do I think her little girl is good enough for my first and only? Should we break up our friendship and prevent the two of you seeing each other outside from school? What if this is it and you never ever show any interest in another girl ever again? What if she breaks your heart?

Just as we tried to get a handle on our first experience of life in the love lane, the two of you dropped the bomb shell – you were cold after the swim and wanted to go bath. You announced it like you have always had. But us two mothers blushed.

“Just bath with your costumes on”.

“That’s dumb”, I hear you say.

“Since when do we have to bath with our clothes on?”

But you did. That was the day you bathed with your first girlfriend, while her mom and I would take turns making sure no-one was drowning – in more ways than one, of course.

As I am writing this letter, you haven’t written her any love notes, or bought her any presents or insisted we visit them after school. Whether it would last till after Christmas, is anyone’s guess. Maybe you would just go back to being good friends and we would start 2013 on a clean slate – one love story later.

What this whole episode taught me, my Angel, was that there was indeed another facial expression of yours that I got to know and never even knew existed – and that was one of total infatuation. The way your eyes would widen and your smile would literally curl around your ears every time you would spot her, was totally impossible to ignore.

It was an expression that I knew I would never get – no matter how perfect I would make your tuna sandwiches or how big the Lego box.

Dad is beaming with pride. I want to squash you up and push you back into my belly before I start saying things like "No girl is good enough for my son".

 

AUDIO: While learning how to read, you also learnt about love