May You Stay Forever Young

We went to Texas Roadhouse the other day to celebrate Tommy successfully finishing second grade. Texas Roadhouse, I should add, is Tommy’s favorite restaurant. He takes after his mother and loves the rolls.

When we all got our drinks (sweet tea for me), I proposed a toast.

“Congratulations, Tommy,” I said. “And to quote a fantastic song from the great Bob Dylan, ‘May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true, may you always know the truth, and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong, may you stay forever young.’”

I expected the table to be moved. I mean, hello, great song.

But they just blinked at me as though I were speaking Swahili.

“You listen to weird music,” Tom said, sipping the cherry limeade that he ordered. The glass was huge, almost as big as my arm.

“You listen to weird music,” I retorted. Seriously. He listens to music where the singer screams at you and sometimes calls you a pussy. I don’t want my music insulting me, thanks.

Since Tommy is finished with school, he brought home tons of classwork that he had done throughout the year.

For example, he wrote a story about our cat Max:







Yes, our cat pukes a lot. I was amused that Tommy would write about it. Tommy said they could write about whatever they wanted and Tommy chose to write about cat vomit. Lovely.

And also, he made this:



For those who don’t speak Tommy, in the top corner is his family. (Aw!)

Then there is Wal-Mart. (Ha)

Beside that is McDonalds. (Yes, we love it there. It didn’t faze us to learn that a Happy Meal found a year later looked basically the same as when it was bought. We love the fries.)

Underneath that is Target.

And beside that is Colorado, which we drive to so we can get to MORE shopping and food.

I’m amused that these things are the map of his heart.

I’m raising him well.