Teenagers

When I tell people that I suddenly have a 14 year old boy and a 12 year old girl, 90% of them respond with some form of: “oh no – teenagers!” like I've just opened my home to a pair of rabid hyenas.

While they may eat like starving wild animals, there’s no real need for concern. My teenagers aren’t like average teenagers. For one thing, they aren't American, so they have no cultural impetus to be an entitled ass hat. For another thing, they are the 10^th and 11^th of their parents’ children – they were raised by people who knew what they were doing.

I really wish my mother-in-law was still living. I would spend an inordinate amount of time quizzing her, in great detail, exactly how she dealt with having a house stuffed to the gills with kiddos and screaming babies, and especially how she turned two VERY naughty little boys into the fine upstanding men now living in my house.

From what my husband has said of her, the secret to success is a great sense of humor and a sturdy pair of flip flops (for use on very naughty little bottoms).

Gabriel is nearly a clone of my husband. He’s less stubborn and far less likely to get into a fight but in pretty much every other respect they are igualito. They even look alike, although you would never know it from the frequent “I am super handsome and you are the ugliest dude alive” debates.

He may also surpass Eli in terms of natural athletic ability. I've never seen anyone more gifted. We took the kids bowling a few weeks ago. Juli bowls like I do (which is to say laughably bad), Gabriel bowled over 100 in his first game and during the second game was beating my mom, who bowls for real on a team, for the first half. These were the first and second games he had ever played – ever – in his life. I’m pretty sure my first games were just a meet ‘n greet with the gutter.

His main love in sports is soccer and he’s pretty dern good at it too. But if you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he won’t say sports star, he’ll tell you he wants to be a pastor – like his dad. If he does end up as a pastor, I think he will be a great one – he has such a kind heart. The other night I had to make out a menu plan for the week. We were all really tired but it had to get done. Eli pooped out on me somewhere around Monday but Gabriel stayed up and helped me think of meal ideas. And when I asked him to clean the bathroom his question wasn't “do I have to?” it was “where are the gloves?”

Juli wants to be a doctor. She is a shining star. Sometimes I can’t believe how smart she is. She is always listening and processing information. As I was having a full-speed English conversation with the front desk lady at the doctor’s office, I had to give the kids’ birthdays in the American style – month/day/year. Juli stopped me immediately and said, “that’s not my birthday.” Everywhere else in the world gives birthdays as day/month/year. I was pretty proud of her for being able to follow the conversation.

She is endlessly curious, asking me a hundred thousand questions every day. Sometimes I even know the answers. Juli also is a kind and caring person. She loves to cuddle with Troy and is a much needed extra pair of hands for me. Often she sees little needs and takes care of them without me having to ask, whether it’s carrying my breakfast dishes to the kitchen or sweeping the floors every Saturday.

It’s usually funnier to write about the scrapes we get into as we all learn how to be a family but I want it down here first that Gabriel and Juli are great kids.

And I’d like to say thank you to Doña Mercedes for raising the love of my life. She may be gone from the world but her spirit is present in her beautiful children – who all inherited her eyes. Troy has those eyes too. Gracias mi suegra linda.