The College Conundrum

Last night, after a day of intense playing outside, the boys were snuggled up on the couch watching Toy Story 3.  Craig was at rehearsal and I was folding laundry in the living room.  It was a really pleasant evening -- all the windows thrown open and we were all worn out and feeling relaxed.

If you're not familiar with Toy Story 3, the boy in the series, Andy, is all grown up and heading off to college.  So as we were watching, Sam started asking me questions about the college experience.  How old are you when you go?  Do you sleep there?  You do?  When do you come? Only at Christmas and Summer?  What if you want to come home more?  Can you come home every night if you want to?  I answered his questions pretty absentmindedly.  I told him though it probably seemed strange now, when he was 18, he'd probably be really excited to go to college.  I kept doing my laundry not thinking too much about the conversation.

Later in the movie, near the end, I noticed Sam rubbing his eyes.  I asked if he was ok.  He shrugged me off and said his eyes were just itchy.

A few minutes later he started to ask me more questions about college.  So I went over and sat on the floor looking up at him in the chair.  He avoided my eyes and his lip started trembling pretty bad.

I asked him if he was worried about going to college.  His eyes filled with tears and he crumpled in a little heap in the chair, trying to hide his tears from me.  I held back my own tears and told him that he didn't have to worry.  Not at all.  That if he wanted to stay here and live with us, he could do that.

He climbed into my lap and hugged me for a good 10 minutes til he'd calmed down. At the end, he said I just don't think I'm going to be going to college, ok, mom?

Henry jumped up and down around us and said I GOING TO COLLEGE!  I GOING TO COLLEGE!  YAAAAAY!  And we all laughed and headed to the bathroom for baths.

I love these little boys so much.