The 3rd Subversive has always been subject to some sort of delay... possibly because he was the fastest birth of the 3 and I make him wait on everything now.
- Sk8rboi (or J-man) is 11 years old and in the 6th Grade. His passion has always involved wheels. When he was little - not that he was ever truly little having been 10 lbs. at birth - his favorite toys were cars. He was vehicularly obsessed. A collection of hudreds of Hotwheels and Matchbox cars exists in my house... it may have been close to thousands if I hadn't made him get rid of some of the duplicates or if he hadn't discovered that creating his own finger-sized demolition derby is a source of great amusement. Now that he's a pre-teen though, he's moved on to SKATEBOARDS. It's a much more thrilling, physically challenging, and financially draining endeavor than toy cars ever was and he's surprising me with the initiative he has shown in researching all the latest and greatest. I do have one question: how is it that skater clothing with all the trendy logos is so ridiculously expensive and the skaters still dress like they dragged their clothes out of the bottom of a dumpster??? What's with the pants hanging down so low that they defy gravity? They wear these huge chunky looking skate shoes, all with laces that are NOT ever meant to be tied - again, defying the laws of physics and staying on their feet even while they jump their boards doing all sorts of physically threatening stunts??? Frankly, I feel old and totally out of touch.
- While he's not a super academic he often shows signs of brilliance and the Sylvan assessment said that his vocabulary is that of a 16 year old (hopefully not a 16-year old on pot). He sees no reason for math facts or learning about the geography and government of another country (come to think of it, even his OWN country) since in his opinion, nothing they teach in elementary school has any relevance to doing a 50/50 grind or an Ollie or any other skateboard thing. He's capable, but according to the teacher, he doesn't give himself enough credit and second guesses himself. He also needs to work on his focus. Sigh. I think that because he feels he's not as smart as Ookpik or Spootie, "what's the point?" I don't think that's true, of course. He took Tae Kwan Do until he was a blue belt to work on his self-esteem and confidence... it's helped a bit, but not enough.
- We thought he was extremely shy and introverted. The child didn't say a word to his grandfather until he was 4 years old! However, he has surprised us yet again: he is an absolute CLOWN and loves to make comical, strange mini-movies of things using the video capture mode on my digital camera. He strings together a series of one minute segments into some odd and often rather funny movies. He makes very funny faces and loves prat falling to make his friends laugh. Thankfully he doesn't clown around in class (I checked with his teachers) but I see strong evidence that Sk8rboi views life as one big, over-the-top Jim Carrey à la Ace Ventura movie! In fact, many of J-man's friends have declared that he reminds them of Mr. Carrey... especially with the odd facial expressions he makes to accentuate his clown behavior.
- Speaking of Jim Carrey, he was the character Enigma (aka the Riddler) in a Batman movie and Sk8rboi is somewhat of an enigma himself. While he is a rough-and-ready, let's go 4x4, can I shoot a rifle, get-his-hands dirty kind of kid, he is also the most sensitive of the 3 Subversives. He is sensitive to when others are hurting. He is always the first one to come and give me a hug when I'm ticked off or unhappy. He hates getting into fights and while there has only been one instance when someone tried to fight him, he came home and fought back the tears as he told me he hates fighting. He is big for his age and is no wimp and he still remembers many of his tae-kwan-do moves, but he absolutely detests it when people get upset and fight and even more so when they try to get him to fight. I don't find it a weakness - I find it to be strength of character that he is able to walk away and not engage. (Now, if only this was the case in how he deals with his sister Spootie... THAT's another enigma.)
Sk8rboi will probably end up being an awesome mechanic or involved in law enforcement. For now though, he is considering a "career" in skateboarding - like Hawk and Mullen. I'm going to try and steer him clear of that - it's a mother's perogative!
You have now officially been introduced to my 3 children. They are often the source of my screams and my craziness, but honestly, I wouldn't trade them for anything because they are also the source of my greatest joys, my most heart-felt moments, and definitely the source of a lot of material for my attempts at becoming an author.
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