Young Love

This morning Garrett and I walked to school with Isabela who, as usual, had a lot to say. She started telling us about her baby brother and how fussy he's being this morning. Garrett was jumping up and down behind her, dying to share his morning report. Isabela said, "Garrett, it's not polite to interrupt. I'm telling you about Santiago!"

"Garrett has big news to share with you," I said.

"Well, I'm almost finished, and then he can speak." She told us about all the food Santiago was refusing this morning.

"Can I go now?" Garrett asked, and then started in without an answer. "LOOK! Isabela, I lost my tooth!" Garrett gave her a big grin so that she could see the space where his tooth once was.

"Oh, huh. I have a very wiggly tooth, Garrett!"

"Isabela," I shamefully interrupted, "When Garrett's tooth came out, he jumped up and down and said, 'Now I can have a tooth necklace.' What do you think of that?" There is a little girl in our neighborhood, Natalia, who wears a necklace, made by her grandmother, that features her first lost tooth. It hangs on a fine gold chain, like precious jewelry. I am deeply disturbed by this, but the kids think it's great.

"Well, I don't want a tooth necklace, but if Garrett does, he'll have to go to Spain to get one. I've been to Spain and France and I can speak 3 languages like my daddy. BONJOUR!"

I like to encourage Isabela. "Oh, that's really cool. Do you know what Oui means?"

"No."

"That means yes in French. So if I ask you, 'Are you a very smart girl?' you can say, 'Oui!' Now, how did Natalia get a tooth necklace? Did she go all the way to Spain?"

"Natiala is Spanish and they took her tooth to Spain and brought it back and now she can have it for 100 years." Oh wow, and pass it down to her children, no doubt.

Isabela was ready to move on from the tooth discussion. She said, "I have 4 boyfriends and so does Natalia and Garrett is not one of them."

Garrett interjected, "I'm not one of them?"

I'm sure this was disturbing news to Garrett, who thinks of himself as belonging to Isabela. "Who are they?"

"Well, I have a Spanish boyfriend, and Robert, and I guess Garrett's the fourth."

"Garrett, did you hear that? You'll have to get in line! But, Isabela, who is the first boyfriend? And I thought you said Garrett didn't make the list."

"Well, now I can't remember the first, so I guess there's only three, but Garrett is still the fourth." She must be saving #1's space.

"And who are Natalia's boyfriends?"

"I told you they are the same! I have 3 and Natalia has 3."

"Yes, but who are they?"

"THE SAME! A Spanish boyfriend, Robert, and Garrett."

"Garrett, did you know you have a second girlfriend?"

Garrett shrugged and blushed. "No."

"If you get one more, you'll have as many as Isabela."

All this talk of love makes me laugh. Last Saturday I took Garrett to a birthday party and one of the mothers told me that her daughter just loves Garrett. When she plays the "Who are you going to marry" game, Garrett is always on the list. I hate to tell her, but there may be a waiting list. Let's not forget Olivia, who I hear tells her kindergarten class across town that Garrett is her boyfriend and she's going to marry him.

Whether or not Isabela is going to be Garrett's wife remains to be seen, but she is busy prepping him. He is already being trained to wait for her to finish speaking before he speaks. When they were about 3 years old, she taught him how to slow dance to classical Beatles music. She even put a sport coat on him for the occasion. And, most notably of all, she has taught him how to spoon. Yes, that's right: spoon.

One day they were having a play date and had disappeared for a few minutes. I honestly dont' know what I was doing while they were off on their own. They put their heads over the top of the stairs and said, "We learned how to do something cool and we want to show Mary."

"Mary is sleeping," I told them, "But, you can show me."

"Okay, c'mon Garrett!" Isabela and Garrett sprinted off to an unknown location. I followed their footsteps and giggles and then I found them, laying perfectly still on Garrett's bed, spooning. Garrett was behind Isabela, with his head behind her head, his hand around her waist, and his knees tucked into hers. I didn't know whether to laugh or scream.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked, ignoring the obvious.

"We're laying down like married people. This is how they do it. I showed Garrett how and he's a really good learner." Garrett looked proud.

Oh dear, God, please tell me that's all of you've learned, I thought. "I see." I struggled for words. To freak out, or not to freak out?

Isabela continued, "Yes, they lay down like this and the man hugs the woman like Garrett is doing now. Good job, Garrett. When Garrett and I are teenagers, we can be boyfriend-girlfriend, but we won't be married, and but we can watch movies like this."

"Okay, well, we don't have to learn those thing yet. You're a long way from being teenagers or married people. Let's go downstairs and have a snack. Who wants to play Disney Bingo?"

They sprung from the bed, "I DO!"

So, you can see that Isabela is way ahead of.... well, everyone. Garrett is like this little love sponge, and wants to know how he's supposed to express himself to people. He seems to have decided that he wants his kisses to come from girls, and not boys. Last week Chris asked to kiss him good night and he said, "No, daddy because you're a boy and I want girls to kiss me." Chris was crushed. I think they agreed on a hug. Garrett is clearly working out some rules for how he wants to express his love. Maybe he can give Isabela his tooth necklace as a symbol of his devotion to her. She can wear it around school like some kind of varsity jacket. I wonder what boyfriends 1, 2, and 3 will think of that.

All I can say is that losing a tooth is all of Garrett's manhood that I can stomach right now.