#4 Nephew Visit: Day One

We arrived home last night after a quick 2-day trip to SE TX to attend an event for FIL and pick up the middle nephew. He'll be staying with us all week; on Saturday, we'll take him to Houston to meet his parents and drop him off.

I was kindof freaking out about the visit before he arrived. I know the visit is a good idea, and I know I agreed to it without hesitation when K and I taked about it, but yikes! Young teen in my house! Unsupervised for the morning hours while K is at work! Yikes! As it turns out, this visit may be very well timed. Some kids at school claim they saw the kid take drugs, and they told his cousin (nephew who is younger by 1 year). Cousin reported it to his mom. His mom hasn't told the kid's parents yet. K may be having a "don't do drugs/don't have sex" talk with the kid. Certainly the kid's dad isn't a shining example on either of those topics. Yikes! Maybe keeping track of how it's going will help me calm myself down about the visit. So far:

* He tried to secretly keep his mom's cell phone for the trip, which he uses to obsessively text his friends all the time. K told his parents that one of the conditions of the visit would be that he not bring the phone, because K doesn't want to compete with the constant (annoying) texting. I busted him as we were getting in the car, and he coughed it up.

* He will actually respond to direct questions. In the past, any interaction with the kid has involved a lot of shrugging and "dunno" or "I guess." We've discovered that the trick is to remember to ask questions that do not require a yes/no response. Sometimes we still get a shrug and a dunno anyway.

* Movie he wanted to watch most w/ K when presented with our entire collection? Spinal Tap. haha! K was thrilled. Of course, later, while they were watching and I was taking a shower, I wondered if it was appropriate for his age. Whoops.

* K & I plotted last night to encourage him to sleep in as much as possible so there's less chance of him getting into trouble when he's home alone. We have a portable DVD player, and we moved it to his room. K let him pick out a movie (or more than one, dunno, I was asleep) to watch after we went to bed. This was my idea--I told K "the later he's up, the later he'll sleep." Wow, real positive influence I am there.

* K & I had a brief discussion about whether we'd be secretly searching his bag for drugs. I offered to do it sometime when they're out of the house, and K agreed. Not sure if he was serious. I did take a peek in one of his bag when I was putting sheets on the guest bed. Didn't see anything suspicious. Need to revisit w/ K.

* He prefers red drinks. Strawberry fanta at dinner on the drive home, pomegranite tea before the movie (that I forgot was in the fridge). Now I'm worried about red beverage spillage all over the house. I purposefully bought less stain-y drinks that I hope he'll try.

* Do 13 year old boys need to be reminded to bathe?

* Found out that spicy sandwiches for dinner + 13 year old boy = really stinky toots during a movie later. haha! They were watching in K's man room, and K told me this morning that a few times he had to breathe through his mouth. I find this funnier than probably appropriate.

* Trips to the grocery store? 1 Meals I've provided? 0 I expect this tally to change again tonight. . .on both counts.