Later the whole family went to a conveyer belt sushi place in Little Tokyo which, despite my fears (I read a review that said it had a 2+ hour wait for dinner, typically) ended up being really fun and only a short wait. I’m glad I could cobble together a quick and fun plan for him so he could feel special. We did cake and candles when we got home, and I forgot to give him his lone present (some Percy Jackson books, his only request). Maybe we’ll open it after his party Sunday.
So what is Theo like, at eleven? This is what I’ll want to know if I ever read this again, and Theo may want to know if he ever finds it. Theo is an extroverted, fun-loving kid with a great sense of humor who never seems to take anything personally and is pretty much always upbeat and friendly. So, the polar opposite of me at his age. He’s so different from me and Bobby, in fact, that if I hadn’t birthed him myself I would wonder who his genes came from, because they couldn’t have been mine, ha! I think the only thing we have in common is a sardonic sense of humor, which to be fair, we all have. In observing the brother dynamic, I often wonder how different each child would be if the other never existed. How different would things be if it were still, thirteen years later, just me and Bobby in this house - or if there had never been a Bobby? How much of Theo’s personality is just little brother energy - bouncing off of, reacting to, and filling any vacuums left by his big brother, who is probably a more important figure than even I am to him, at this point? I often point out to Bobby how bored and lonely he’d be without this constant companion, and he only shrugs, but the response is quite different when I say the same thing to Theo. Younger siblings are so formed by their birth order…and yet, at least in Theo’s case, manage to forge their own way in the world and be fierce, free individuals. Free of parental expectations and anxieties, free of having to do certain things or be a certain way. I used to say, at the worst, Bobby got my anxiety and Theo got my exhaustion…but the other side of that coin is Bobby got my enthusiasm and Theo got my experience. I’m so glad I made that (admittedly) crazy leap to attempt a second child as a single mother by choice. He is a delight and our worlds just wouldn’t be the same without him. I now present to you my last 40-year-old egg.
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