Six going on sixteen

This has been a crazy, hectic month.  I have a lot to catch up on, including my boy's sixth(!!!) birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I'm looking forward to the Thanksgiving break next week.  Jack has the entire week off of school, and not a moment too soon.  I think the daily grind is finally starting to get to him.

Today was the first day that we were almost late to school because he couldn't wake up in the morning.  It's like this week he has turned into a teenager.

On Tuesday, his PE teacher told me that the custodian saw Jack kissing a little girl in his class on the lips.  His teacher said that she could tell that Jack was afraid that he was going to get in trouble, but they just told both kids no kissing on the lips at school.

When I asked Jack about it later, he seemed embarrassed.  He told me, "She made me want to kiss her."

Um, what?

I asked him to explain.  He said that basically this little girl puckered up in front of him, and he couldn't resist kissing her on the lips.

Oh-kay.

I told him he wasn't in trouble, but just to keep the kissing for when he's not in school.

Upon waking the next morning, the first thing he told me was that he was afraid that the custodian was going to tell his homeroom teacher and the principal too.  I told him he didn't have to worry about it, because the only thing they would ever do is tell his parents, which they already did and he wasn't in trouble.  I was feeling a little sorry for my poor boy.  His first little kiss, and he was already feeling bad about it.

As we were driving to school, I looked at the clock and realized that we had left later than I had planned.  The main reason why is that Jack took much longer getting ready than I expected.  Usually, he can get through his morning routine in 10 minutes.  That morning, it took him nearly 20 minutes.

"What were you doing in the bathroom that took so long?" I asked.

"I had to fix my hair so I wouldn't have bedhead," he said.

Really?  My kindergartener is worrying about his hair already?

That afternoon, I had his parent-teacher conference.  I mentioned to his homeroom teacher that the PE teacher had told me about the kissing.  His teacher is so sweet.  She said that she thought it was because the little girl was so cute and small (she is seriously nearly a full head shorter than Jack), he probably thought of her like his little sister.  She said that the little girl must have reminded Jack of Violet.  I have to admit, that did not occur to me at all.  Even though I was skeptical, having this as a possible explanation cheered me a bit.

Later that evening, I asked Jack, "Did you kiss the little girl because she reminded you of Violet?"

Blank stare.

"Or was it something else?"

I saw red bloom on his cheeks.

"It was something else," he mumbled.

Ah.

And uh-oh.

Then this morning, he simply could not wake up.  Normally, I go into his room in the morning, and he's out of bed within a few minutes.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, he usually wakes up at 6:30 to go to running club, which starts at 7:00. This morning when I went in, he murmured, "Good night."

I asked him if he wanted to skip running club today.  He said yes.  I went in to get him up 15 minutes later.  He still said he was sleepy.  I told him I could let him sleep five more minutes if he were super focused and didn't dawdle getting ready to go to school.  He agreed.  I woke him up seven minutes later, and he was still out of it, grumpy, and groggy.  We made it to school just in time, but it's the closest we've gotten to spoiling his perfect attendance record.

It will be so nice to have a week long break for him to be able to sleep in as late as he needs to catch up.  (I would say me too, but my schedule is entirely dependent on a less reliable alarm clock named Violet.)  Maybe then this strangely adolescent interloper will leave and my sweet little boy will come back.