Matthew is at the age where I can leave him to do things without having to worry that he'll do something stupid like ... lick the wall socket, plug a fork into an outlet or even burn the house down. Not that he's ever tried to do any of the above, but it's nice to know he's at the age where common sense rules and he won't even try to pull stupid stunts like that since he knows how bad the consequences would be. Those who know me have a pretty good idea what that would be. He's pretty self sufficient and can even prepare little meals for himself. If I can only get him to do his own laundry and iron his own clothes. Then again, it shows that he still needs me.
We have been home for the Thanksgiving holiday and got into the spirit of decorating the house for the upcoming Christmas season. We went down to get the tree and all the decorations. Tony assembled the tree and we let Matthew take over. It was quite nice to be able to sit back and watch Matthew decorate the whole entire tree with the ornaments that we've managed to collect over the years. When you put a 12 year old in charge, the tree will be pretty skewed as to what his favorite ornaments are. The tree is completely covered with Star Wars, Star Trek, Spiderman, Ironman, Batman and lots of Toy Story ornaments. You will find the occasional family ornament up there but for the most part, its a tree that any 12 year old boy would take pride in. What ever happened to the conventional Christmas balls and tinsel?So, there is something to be said about having children. If I had known the benefits would be this great, I'd have about two more to even out the work load in the house. Tony and I can sit back and start delegating.
