Little Brother

Mr. Ibis and I met Little B last night. I was so nervous beforehand. Nervous that it would be awkward, that he wouldn't like us, even maybe that we wouldn't like him. But it went so well. We sat down with him, his mom, and someone from the program for a little while and went over the rules. When the official business was done, we asked if he'd like to go out for a little while to grab some ice cream, and he literally jumped up from his seat and said "Yeah!"

So the three of us went to an ice cream parlor and chatted for a little while. He and Mr. Ibis both love sports, so they talked a lot about their favorite players and whatnot, plus we talked a little about school and pets and things we like to do for fun. Little B held all the doors for us, not only the door to the ice cream shop, but also rushing ahead to open our car doors for us too. So cute. Our biggest hope was just that our Little would be a kid who was really interested in the program and having mentors, not just going along with it because his mom signed him up. And he was so enthusiastic, it was great. As we were bringing him home we were talking with him about how he could come over to play video games and play with our dog sometime, and he said "I wish I could come over right now." Ahhhh so cute!

It's weird, he's so much like the child I pictured us mentoring, it's almost like I had a premonition. He is soft-spoken but outgoing and friendly. He and his mom say that he has some problems with anger management at times, but he is very respectful and polite. If you ask him a question, he doesn't give you one word answers, he makes conversation. For example, I asked him what he was studying in school right now, and he told me all about South American snake species. I don't want to overidealize the relationship - I'm sure we will have bumps in the road with him - but we really got off to an amazing start and he seems like a wonderful kid. It was hard for both Mr. I and me to fall asleep last night because we were so excited about it.