One Foot on a Banana Peel

Last night, as Tim and I were innocently sitting around the fire pit with Megan and three of her girlfriends making s’mores, mountain pies and hotdogs and enjoying the silly banter and antics of the girls…..life blindsided us with the next stage in our baby’s growing up.  Her cell phone rang and it was a call from a couple of boys she (and the other girls) know from school.  Next thing you know I’m on the phone explaining how to find our house.  Tim, meanwhile, was having seizures on the lawn.  Not really.  He was actually in the house getting out his shotgun.  Oh okay, he didn’t do either of those things but he wasn’t smiling either.  He is so not ready for the young bucks to come sniffing around his baby girl.  Doesn’t help that I think they reminded him of himself at that age….farmer boys with big, loud pickup trucks.  And he knows what he was like.

We met the boys and they seemed nice enough.  I can’t comment too much on their looks.  The girls assure me that one was a hottie, but I personally thought it was too dark to get a good look.  The other poor kid they described as being 6′8" and looking like the character Flounder from The Little Mermaid.  It was dark, but I could tell he wasn’t suffering from giganticism or burdened with the body of a fish.  Anyway, since they seemed nice, I came inside to give them a bit of space.  I could see them perfectly fine from the kitchen window.  Tim kept saying I should stay out with them.  He probably thought I should take the shotgun with me.  After all, this is his baby we’re talking about and she isn’t allowed to date until she is either: a) 60, b) already married, or c) Tim is dead.

This is all kind of new territory for us.  Matt wasn’t really all that social and never had friends, let alone girlfriends, over much.  If there were guys and girls here they were the youth group kids.  I knew it would be a whole different ballgame with Megan as she has always been an extremely social creature.  Still, last night was unexpected.

Today they are off to the school picnic at the local amusement park.  We dropped them off this morning and they are meeting up with a lot of their friends.  Again, most of them are guys.

Sigh.  I feel old today.