Ring! It's the Monkeys on the Bananaphone!

When my boys--all 3 of them--went away last weekend, I had the house all to myself for several days. It's possible that in the week leading up to their departure, I might have been seen dancing around jubilantly, doing a little cheer (A-L...O-N-E, that's the way I'm going to be.....yay, me! something like that). I think my friends and family would call me a sociable person in general...but I have a pretty wide "loner streak" tucked deep down inside, that I just don't get to indulge very much. I get totally recharged by not having to make conversation, or entertain anyone, or answer questions for a while.

My oldest son seems to be similar to me--he enjoys interacting with people, but can also hide out in his room and read for long periods of time, content to be by himself. My younger son is...a nonstop chattering whirlwind of words. If he's not narrating what he's doing at the moment, he's asking for your input on something, or talking through an issue out loud, or blurting out whatever's on his mind (hmmm...he gets that from Husband!)

So when the phone rang while Husband and Sons were in SC, I should have known who it would be. "Hi, Mommy, it's Riley. I called to tell you we're going to stay up late watching the Penn State game on TV. Are we allowed to do that?" (um, you're on Daddy's watch, ask him!) After he provided a nice little recap of his day for me, we said goodnight and hung up. Not 15 minutes later, the phone rang again. "I forgot to tell you what we had for dinner. We had shrimp. I ate a lot, but not as much as Derek. And we had cookies-and-cream ice cream." Without boring you with any further details, suffice it to say there were TWO more phone calls before he was captured and cut off from the phone lines (apparently we're on Speed Dial, and some foolish person--grandmother--told him that little secret).

Don't get me wrong, it was nice to hear the details of his busy and exciting vacation. (I especially enjoyed it when he felt the need to share how much he weighed on their bathroom scale, after his enormous dinner and dessert.) I actually hope that this openness and honesty is a lasting part of Riley's personality, so that one day, when he's more into cars and girls and hanging out with his friends than chatting with his mom, he still tells me what's going on! But if he called one more time during my "peace and quiet time", I was handing the receiver to the cat!