Jakob B

When I volunteered at Ariana's school last Wednesday, I was introduced to the charming Jakob B. This second grader from Ariana's class is the bad boy/class clown, and he had decided he needed to entertain me through various means. Anybody here ever see A Christmas Story? If you haven't, you should. It's a Christmas classic. "You'll shoot your eye out!" Ralphie...the chinese waiters singing fawr rawr rawr rawr rawr...oh man...good stuff. Anyway, one famous scene from the movie is when Ralphie's brother, a notoriously picky eater, is told by their mother to "eat like a piggie" as a means to encourage the boy to eat. He giggles, pushes his face into the plate fully, and scarfs away, leaving very little on the plate and most of the food on his face.

Yes, in the lunchroom, my daughter Ariana was on one side and Jakob was on the other. He did his eat like a piggie impression for me, and then he raised his head up with pieces of red jello all over his face, including one singluarly large piece dangling from his nose.

He is cute, and he is the bad boy in class. Typically, that means that the girls in class would swoon over him. Jakob, however, has the hots for my daughter. He crowed at me in the middle of the meal, "She LIIIIKES me! Ariana LIIIIIKES me!" Ariana snorted and said as a matter of fact, no I don't. Haha! Jakob then declared that he was Ari's boyfriend and she was his girlfriend. Ariana rolled her eyes again and repeated: no you're not. So, I turned to Jakob and grinned. "I know who she LIIIIIKES and I'm sorry, Jakob, it's not you!" My daughter has a crush on this little boy named Matthew. Matthew is super smart. Matthew is a sweet, shy, gentle boy who reads upper level books with ease. Ari's had a bad crush on him for over a year. They make an adorable couple, as apparently my daredevil girl gets Matthew out of his shell a lot. I was talking to Matthew's mom at the fall festival a few months back, and she was pointing out how Ari was dragging Matthew down this super slide. "My son would NEVER, EVER do anything like that, but Ariana gets him to do all sorts of things! He's so timid, but she makes him bold!" In return, according to Ariana, Matthew reads to her. Now mind you--my daughter is one of the very few children in her class who reads above level. She doesn't need to be read to. Matthew just does it because he likes her. Awwww...I love Matthew too! Apparently, Ariana's two closest girlfriends know she loves Matthew too because when I made my comment to Jakob, they cried out, "Yes! She loves Matthew!" haha!

Of course Jakob B was undeterred. He insisted she was his regardless, or would be in the end. Ariana just rolled her eyes and continued to eat. I thought it was just hilarious.

It reminded me of my own days as a gradeschooler. I can remember the full names of all the little boys I had a crush on! For first grade, it was Keith Willet. For second grade, it was Lewis Carron. For third, fourth, and fifth grade, it was Michael Shepp. Oddly, all three of those boys I ran into in later years, and all three then hit on me, and by then I didn't want them. Such is the fickleness of women!

After the whole day, Ariana told me that Jakob reminded her of her dad. "Jakob should be daddy's son. Daddy is such a pig...he never cleans his house at ALL. And Jakob is just a piggy all the time too."

Oohhh...and then she proceeded to tell me how Matthew was much better because he was kind and nice like Alex...

Is it too much to hope for that she'll skip the "I like bad boys" phase most girls go through? I didn't, so I guess I never expected Ariana could...

******

On one side of me at the dinner table at Thanksgiving at my brother's house I had my sister-in-law's brother-in-law (a military man who is very conservative and a republican) and then my beloved French boyfriend, Alex, on the other side (he's more conservative than many Frenchmen because he's more of a liberal than a socialist, but hey, still the opposite end of the political spectrum). It was also a symbolic arrangement because I really am more of what you might call a centrist in my political orientation, and there I was smack in between them. Depends on the issue for me totally as far as how I will swing. Anyway! For some, this might have been a recipe for disaster. For us, it turned out to be the best part of Thanksgiving.

The French love great, delicious, long dinners and then avid intellectual discussion afterwards. Apparently, so did this fellow. He had just come back from Iraq (safely, thank goodness), and he had an interesting spin on a lot of things. Alex, having lived his entire life in Europe, had a completely different orientation towards the debates too. Wow! All of us were grinning, discussing avidly, talking about this point or that. Nobody had a closed mind. Everybody listened when the other spoke. Nobody jumped to conclusions, and we all listened to the points or evidence shown by the other for their point of view. It was a great brain exercise! I wish all people approached political conversations like this. There was no rolling of eyes, jeering, name calling, belittling, or any of the other childish behavior I see often in these types of discussion. There was just earnest discussion and debate of many different issues. I think the most interesting thing I learned that night that I didn't know was from our new friend: he told us that he had no idea why people complained about the French being ungrateful to the US as they were the ONLY country after WW II to pay off their war debt to the US. I had NO idea of that fact...and neither did Alex. Cool!

Anyway, I think we'll get to see him at a Christmas party when we head to my brother's house for Christmas. I hope he's able to be around for it! I have no idea when he has leave next since he's military.