Oscar has an admirer.
There is a little girl at nursery who absolutely adores him.
She is a bit older than him and moved up to the big class about six months ago. Now that he has also moved up there they have had a blessed reunion. She is delighted about it all. He is a boy.
She follows him around a lot, calling his name and trying to embrace him. He stumps about, head down, busily examining the carpet and pretending that he has no idea what is going on. It is all too much for him.
She is absolutely exquisite. Huge, liquid brown eyes, dark curly ringlets and a mouth like a cupid’s bow. She is a delicious looking child.
He does not care.
He does not dislike her. It is just that she does not really register as important to his life.
I feel that this is a shame, because if he decides that girls are his thing, she will undoubtedly turn out to be a stunning young woman, and by the time he is old enough to fall for her, she will not be in the slightest bit interested in him with his breaking voice and bum fluff and teenage acne. It is a missed opportunity.
On Thursday when I dropped him off for the morning she flew over from what she had been doing and tried to hug him. He shuffled away. She called his name and followed him eagerly.
I hung his bag on his peg and turned to say goodbye. At this point she was bending over to kiss the back of his neck. He stood stock still like someone faced with a charging rhino and knowing that there was no hope but to pretend they didn’t exist and think calm thoughts.
On Friday afternoon we were cooking tea and I asked him if he liked this girl. We will call her Felicity. He was very non committal about it and did the whole Gallic shrug number.
Jason asked if he liked kissing Felicity. He stared at us sideways, managing to look slightly horrified.
He said, after a huge amount of thought: ‘Nah!’ in a very diffident voice.
Jason asked him if he liked kissing anyone else. Another long silence, a bit of toe scuffling and then ‘Nah!’ once more.
After that he looked up and said:
‘I like Jake best!’
Jason said: ‘Do you like kissing Jake?’
To which he giggled and said: ‘Nah!’
Another pause:
‘Jake is my favourite. Jake is good.’
Jason said: ‘Why is Jake your favourite?’
To which Oscar got very animated and said, his face shining with joy:
‘Jake is my favourite because he is the best at running and he is really, really fast like this!’
And zoomed off to show us just how fast his favourite person was.
So you see, running is way more fun than kissing any day of the week and if more boys remembered that there would be significantly less teenage pregnancies in years to come I feel.
My son (aged two-and-three-quarters) has an actual girlfriend. They kiss and cuddle and play together but still, at the end of the day when they have to say goodbye, she’s all over him and he’s scuffing his feet and looking at the floor. Blokes start young I guess!
That is so sweet! Attila came home with a note from a boy when she was in year 5. It read ‘will you be my girlfriend?’ and had two little boxes for her to tick – one had yes beside it and the other no.
Too cute. Boys can be such BOYS almost from birth! But maybe it’s the girls who should take up running to avoid the teenage pregnancies?
How sweet is that! Running fast is naturally more appealing. I think it’s sweet that he tolerates her attentions so.
Girls seem to form these special attachments to boys at this age. Pudding has a young lady who adores him. She calls him her “best best”. It’s all very lovely but it creates some odd situations. She had a fairy themed birthday party and Pudding insisted on wearing a Spiderman costume. He looked a bit out of place.
Sparx
They really do! I’m hoping mine will improve with age, but it’s not hope based on experience.
Alienne
How lovely to have you back. I’ve missed you.xx
Sharon
How about both lots running but in different directions?
Ali
Yes, I was very impressed he didn’t hit her with the Bob the Builder tool kit. It’s nice to have someone who is better than best I think. Pudding is a lucky young man.
Hehe, this is brilliant. Clearly Oscar is just practising for when he’s grown up
Bev
That’s what worries me. He’s very precocious