Vignettes of GoofBoy - A Great Son

Most of what I've been writing about GoofBoy lately has been negative - not about him - but about his challenges (and frustrations) with fifth grade. But I wouldn't want to give the impression that being his dad is without rewards. Almost every day he does something incredible.

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GoofBoy read the Orson Scott Card classic Ender’s Game recently. This is a great book, really miles ahead of Harry Potter as literature - and I don’t say that lightly, I like Harry Potter.

He knew he wanted to read it, but he was afraid to ask me because it had bad words. I responded, “I know you know all the bad words. You can read books that use them, but I don’t want YOU to use them.”

The book blew him away. I remember going to his room during the weekend he read it. He looked up at me and said, “Dad, I just don’t want to do anything but read this book.”

Unfortunately it was a bit too good. He can’t get into anything else. He started the sequel to Ender’s Game but it was a bit too advanced. He went back to a young adult series he had been reading and it was just too lightweight.

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We had a little boy over, he is about half of GoofBoy’s age, but GoofBoy loves him. It was rainy, so they stayed inside, chasing each other around the house shooting each other with Nerf Guns. I noticed as they were playing that the little boy had on the Nerf safety glasses.

“Buddy,” I told GoofBoy, “Good job, you remembered to have your playmate put on the safety glasses without my telling you.”

“Dad, I wouldn’t want him to get hurt cause then they might not let him come over again.”

“That’s very responsible of you.”

GoofBoy grinned, “And now I can aim for his eyes!”

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For Jewish holidays the little Goofs have been home a lot and there are no electronics for us on those days. So GoofGirl was getting a little bored and MamaGoof and I needed a naps (drinking wine to celebrate our holidays is tradition).

GoofBoy rose to the occasion. He sat on the floor, pulled his sister into his lap and told her stories – stories he just made up. Unsurprisingly, they were action stories, and GoofBoy bounced and tossed his sister to enliven the drama.

When I finally got up, I told GoofBoy how helpful he had been and said that the bouncing in his lap made his stories like a ride at Disneyland.

“Yeah,” he grinned, “Where do you think I got the idea?”

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That a boy would build a model of the Empire State Building with Legos is no surprise. But the little valentine was an odd touch, so I asked GoofBoy about it.

He explained, “I added the heart on September 11th.”