Oh, Man!

Although we are still one year and two weeks away from official teenage years for Carter, apparently the transition to teen-hood and manhood starts early. Really early.

This has been an interesting week for Carter. Of course, I am the mother and was not witness to any of this. I was the second to last to know. You, dear reader, are the last.

Signs that manhood (as we know it) is on the horizon:

The other night while hubby was cleaning the toilet (wait, that's not the way to start talking about manhood, but I seriously love that he is man enough to do that for me, er us). Anyway, the other night, he was cleaning it and the brush broke and got stuck. He actually reached in the water to grab it, but couldn't reach it it up that hole on the bottom. (I bet there's a technical plumbing name for that but it escapes me.) So he needed someone with smaller hands to get it. (Thank god he is leaving my small hands for headlights.) He asked Carter to do it. And he did it!

For a dollar!

So being at one with the toilet is some male rite of passage, I guess. But he continued this bonding...

The next night he actually took his social studies book in the bathroom when he knew he'd "be in there awhile." When he was done, he was very proud of his multi-tasking accomplishment. "I almost got the whole chapter read!"

Yay.

Tonight, though I should be grateful this has nothing to do with toilets, was a real big deal. I was told after the fact of course that Carter drove the CRV from our next-door neighbor's and parked it in our driveway. Good lord! We're down to one vehicle and we're putting it in the hands of an 11-year-old? I guess only moms think there is a problem with this scenario because all the neighborhood dads thought it was pretty cool.

So did Carter, who by the way, isn't old enough to legally sit in the front seat to begin with. He's got 2 weeks before he can ride shotgun...

and hold my purse. Yeah, how's that for manhood?