The Fat Lip

My oldest son is now 21. He is a handsome, smart, articulate man now... but in his younger days... that is another story. He has always been sensitive. He is my step son, but that has always been a non factor with me. I met my husband when TJ was turning two, and from that point on, he has been considered my son in my eyes and in my heart. He got snowballed into a family of men; my sister had two boys, close to TJ's age, and I had a brother, and my husband has four. TJ was such a "feelings" kind of kid... I remember when I first met him, before he turned two. I was doing my best to impress him with my old cheer leading skills. I did my old stand by regular cheer that we did at the basketball games... " U, G, L, Y .. you ain't got no alibi.. you ugly ... yeah, yeah , you ugly! ( let me comment that I went to a diverse, high school, at the beginning of integrating schools; and the blacks had the best cheers and chants) Let me add here that we were ALWAYS rockin the house. TJ broke into tears after this, to my utter amazement.... It was just a cheer, but it went straight to TJ's soul. He was crushed. Needless to say , I never said "that" cheer again, but it lets you know what a sensitive person was being formed at the age of three. My sister's two boys were rough and tumble types, growing up so close in age. TJ was my only child; had a sister from his biological Mom's side. I remember one of my nephews saying one time to my sister.. " I love TJ, but he's a baby". Yes he was, and he still is my first baby. When he was about five, I enrolled him at a summer camp at my childhood church.. along with my two Rough and tumble nephews, and two of my sister's best friends sons.. two more rough and tumble guys . I remember the first morning that I dropped him off in the breezeway at my old church ...I looked in the rear view mirror to see my sister's friends boy snatching off TJ's hat and making him jump to try to catch it. I thought to myself " try to survive, I'll be back at 4PM to get you." He did survive, and actually had fun at the camp, and maybe toughened a bit. But then when he was about ten, we had another meltdown of his fat lip. ( He has the fattest lips I have ever seen on anyone.. he makes Mick Jagger look tight lipped) . We all went to Florida for vacation.. Me, my husband, TJ, his brother, my sister, her two tormenting sons, my dad, my brother(also a tormentor) and my sister's husband. After a fun filled week on the beach, we all packed up to leave, met at the gas station right down the street from the rental house, and all gassed up. I must insert here that this was before everyone on God's green Earth had a cell phone. (how did we survive without them this long?) Everyone got back into their cars, and we proceeded to the highway to head back to Atlanta. About five miles down the road, I asked my husband where TJ was, and we pulled up to every car in our caravan, making hand signs and motions, like " DO YOU HAVE TJ IN YOUR CAR??" Every car responded "NO", and the entire caravan turned around to travel back to the gas station that we had all gathered at.... And there stood little TJ, with his fat lip out so far that we could have all hopped a ride home on it. He was SOOO mad at us, and more ticked that we all laughed at ourselves for leaving him. HEY!! Who knew ? Thank the Lord, that he created the world wide web and widespread cell phone usage right after we all left my son at a gas station in Panama City Florida !! How lucky were we? Or should I say "how lucky was TJ? " He still to this day, says he has blocked that out of his memory.. standing on the corner, with his gummy worms in his hand, saying "Where in the heck ARE they"? Needless to say... every time we go on a trip now.. TJ is the first one in the car. His lips are still fat, but pouting for different reasons now....Probably because of this latest post... but you are stuck with me as a Mother, and get used to it... you kids are too much material to ignore. Till later...COTTON