Vacation with M: Day Five

Ahhh…today was going to be a big day for M.  

She loves my parents, but loves staying at their house even more.  It’s a pretty big, beautiful home with a ton of room and pets (2 cats, one dog).  It’s also got my 15-year-old little brother, Z (who’s technically my nephew, but that’s a whole other blog for a whole other day).

Needless to say, M loves Z and looks up to him.  Every time she comes to visit, she can’t wait to play Wii or Nintendo DS or whatever electronic game is out there for them to play.  The problem?  Well…as Z has gotten a bit older, he’s your typical “life sucks leave me alone” teenager.  He mopes…he listens to heavy metal music…he wears black a lot.  No big deal…it’s just who he is.

The problem, though, is that he now feels like he’s above playing with a 10-year-old.  He hasn’t quite grasped the concept of “she’s family, do it for her”.  In fact, M called him last week to tell him how excited she was to see him, but he was playing with a friend and she overheard him say to the friend that he was talking to his “annoying cousin”.

Ouch.  

Still…she was totally looking forward to the trip.

M: Bubble-blowing champ

We had a really good talk in the car on the hour-long trip there (in between her blowing bubbles, of course).  We talked about her possibily staying with me over the summer (or part of the summer), how hard it is to make friends at school who don’t think you’re “annoying” (I could totally relate), why she seems to be so unhappy at home (it’s not doing chores or being told what to do, it’s apparently how she’s being told), and what music was playing on the CD that I made her for driving around.

I think I’ll be having a conversation with her mom about the summer.  I think it’d be great for her (and for me), but right now it’s just a huge matter about financing both the trip and the day-care/camp that we’d have to arrange for her as I’d be working every day.  It’s certainly a discussion to have…

On the computer: 03-10-09

As it turns out, it was a pretty uneventful day once we arrived.  Lunch…Rock Star with her on guitars and me on drums…Z coming home after school and them hanging out (without fighting, I might add)…M playing on the computer for a bit while Z “did his own thing”…me talking with mom and dad about things…supper…American Idol…sleep.  The end.

M slept in the spare bedroom as I slept on a couch in the basement.  And thus ended a pleasant, but as stated uneventful, Day Five.

Day Six and Seven are going to be spent with her mom’s side of the family.  I dropped her off this morning at her grandmother’s house.  She couldn’t wait to go because the grandmother had promised to take her shopping for Hannah Montana clothes and buy her enough to stuff a second suitcase (which was already purchased).  

Needless to say, M was pretty excited.  

So now I’m home and catching up on a lot of blog reading and Twitter updates that I’ve kinda missed over the past few days.  I’m thinking about work and about the summer…

…and I’m also thinking about the invite I received from a former co-worker so go out sometime for chocolate martinis.  Interesting.