Rico Suave

A couple of days ago I went to pick Riley up at school. No one was home to watch him and Holden had stayed after school for Spirit Club. So, Riley stayed after with Holden and when I got off of work I went and picked him up.

He walked up to me with his book bag in his hand grinning from ear to ear.

"I've got something to show you, Mama."

"Is it something good or is it something bad?"

"It's good, really, really good. No one else in my class has ever gotten this before."

That got me curious. What could it be? He brings home A+ work all the time so I knew it couldn't be that. What could his teacher have given him that no one else in his class had ever gotten?

We only live about 2 minutes from school so I told him I'd look at it when I got home.

We got in the car and he said, "Don't leave yet. I want to show you what I got."

"Can't it wait until we get home?"

"No, I want to show you now."

He unzipped the little pocket on the front of his book bag and pulled out a small slip of paper.

"Oh, this is so good", he said with an evil little grin.

He handed me a slip of paper. On it, in pencil, was a phone number.

"It's E's phone number, Mom. She gave me her phone number!" His eyes were shining.

My six year old got a little girl's digits. E is in Riley's class. She's a cute little girl with long, blond, curly hair. Yeah, he's definitely male.

He's always had a little crush on her and from speaking with E's mom I found out last year that the feeling was mutual, but I never told Riley about it.

But, now, instead of "like" he was using more mature words.

"I'm in love with E and she's in love with me."

I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.

"I'm going to call her tonight."

"I don't think so." Call me old fashion but I find it a little inappropriate for six years olds to be calling each other because they are "in love".

I thought that was the end of it.

Every night right before he goes to bed Riley calls my mom and tells her goodnight. He went into his room to call her like he does every night. A little while later I went in to check on him He was just hanging up the phone. I didn't think anything of it.

That is until the phone rang. Michael answered.

"No. I haven't called anyone. "

"Well, maybe my son was playing with the phone, but we didn't call your number. Sorry."

I took the phone from him and checked the caller ID. It was from E's number. My little boy had worked up the nerve to call a girl and when her mom answered he hung up.

Of course, he got in trouble because he had done something that I had specifically told him not to do. We had a conversation about it. And, I let him in on a little secret. I told him that most people have caller ID and that when you call them they know that it's you they called. He told me he didn't know that (obviously).

I put him to bed. When I walked in the living room I couldn't help but smile at Michael. I couldn't believe that Riley had actually worked up the nerve to call her. If he's starting this at six, what am I going to do when he's 13?

When he got home from school yesterday I asked him if he got anymore phone numbers that day.

"No. I gave E's number to B. "

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I don't need all that stress, Mom."

I went in the other room and laughed and laughed. Ah, he's learning at a very early age.