Anyone else have a typical teenage boy? It's not that Reese didn't have a great time with his great-aunt and great-grandmother, it's just that he's a typical 16 year old boy, with other things on his mind. ;op (I think he rocks!)

After multiple weeks of nagging Reese to write thank-yous to his great-grandmother and great-aunt, I finally handed two blank cards to him and said, HERE!

“Oh, yeah, thanks! I’ll do this right away.”

A week later…

“Reese, I’m assuming you sent those thank you’s.”

“Oh! Uh, oh, yeah. Uh… well, not yet. But I’ll get on it right away.”

A week later,

“Have you written those thank you’s yet?”

“Huh?? Oh. Uh, no, but I will!”

3 days later…

“Reese, where are those thank yous??”

“Huh? Oh, yeah! I gotta do those.”

“How about now??”

“Uh, okay.”

The next day, I see them on the table, written, but no envelopes in sight.

“Hey, great, you finally wrote your thank-yous. Where are the envelopes?”

“Huh?? Oh. Uh, I don’t really know...” Starts looking around. I find them in the other room under the coffee table.

“Okay, thanks. Um, can you mail these now?”

“ME?! How old ARE you, son?? YOU address and mail them! You are 16 years old!!”

“Me?? *sighs* Okay…”

A week later, I find the cards and the loosely scattered, blank envelopes under a stack of papers on the dining room table.

“REESE!! You haven’t mailed these yet?!?!”

“I don’t know the addresses!! Can you give them to me?” I write out the addresses on a piece of paper and hand it to him.

3 days later…
“Are the thank you’s ready to mail yet?”

“Well, actually, I sealed them and don’t know whose is who’s…”

“Oh, Reese!!”

“Sorry.” He carefully opens them and identifies which one is which. Recloses them. That afternoon (heaven forbid he did it right then), he writes the address on the envelopes.

“These look like a First Grader did them.”

“Really? I thought they looked pretty good. Can you mail them now?”

“No, you still have to put our return address on them.”

“You mean, our address? Can you do it for me?”

“YES. And NO.” (Losing patience.) “Right here, in this corner.” I show him an example of a piece of mail addressed to us.

“Okay.”

FOUR DAYS LATER,

“ARE YOU GOING TO PUT RETURN ADDRESSES ON THESE?!?!”

“Yes! Give them to me now.” He write our address in the right spot. “There, can you put stamps on these for me?”

“NOOOOO!! YOU will put stamps on them!! You know where to find them in my desk. You do know where to PUT the stamps, don’t you??”

“Yes, right here.” Points to the right spot.

“Yes.”

ANOTHER FOUR DAYS LATER,

“Reese. PUT STAMPS ON THESE LETTERS AND GET THEM MAILED!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Several MORE days later,

“Reese. Son. Look at me. You have GOT to get some stamps and get them on these letters and get them mailed before your Gram Faye and Aunt Cathy forget you were even there because it has been such a long time ago!!!”

*sigh* “Okay. Where are the stamps, again?”

“You know exactly where they are. The Ronald Reagan stamps. Right there in my top drawer.”

“Okay.”

I’m not kidding you, it was still another 2 or 3 days before,

“Reese, why have you not put stamps on these letters?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, well, I just forgot.”

“Do it right NOW while I watch.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He puts the stamps on.

“Now, in the morning, before school, you will put those letters in your hand and walk down the driveway and put them in the mailbox. Do you know how to raise the little flag on the mailbox so they will be picked up?”

Smiling, cause he knows I’m teasing him,

“Yes, ma’am, I know how.”

Nikolai chimes in, “I can show him!!!”

“No, thank you, Nikolai, Reese needs to learn how to put a letter in the mailbox all by his big boy self.”

And sure enough, the very next morning, without a reminder, the boy actually took the letters to the mailbox and mailed them!!!!!

I love that kid. ;o)