Middle Child - the title alone tells you all you need to know

My Middle Child is the quintessential Middle Child. He reads this blog and absolutely loves it when I blog about him. Whenever I write something witty for an 11-year-old he gets all silly and acts witty for the next two or three days, trying to get me to write about him. It really gets annoying to always have him answer the phone this way. (Yes, click those bolded words to see how he acts on a regular basis.) He is always screaming for attention, especially in the way he acts all shy when he does get noticed. He knows people will try to draw him out, therefore paying him more attention. Whenever he gets a good grade on a test he calls me to let me know so I can laud him with praises, which I do cuz he's usually missing half the assignments leading up to the test so I don't really know if he's ready or not. And this is characteristic of Middle Children, starting and not finishing things, wreaking havoc on my high expectations of his schooling.

But being the Middle Child he has learned some skills that the others haven't. He has mastered non-agressive strategies to get what he wants. At Olaf's Christmas party he and Baby won a Nintendo DS. Now Middle Child had worked hard one summer and saved enough money to buy himself a DS, about four years ago. But this was a brand-new, shiny, red DS! After the party was over and the DS prize was secured he went to work on Baby. By the time we had gotten home he had talked Baby into believing how Wonderful! and Great! the old, scratched screen, missing hinge, DS was. Baby was all set to own the old one and let Middle Child have the new one all to himself. He is the master at negotiation.

We often wonder if he will be an attorney when he grows up. When I'm not upset, I'm not an Absolute person. I don't believe in Always and Never. But whenever I make any kind of statement he always responds with "What if. . ." Augh! It drives me crazy! I'm not caring about What If's when I tell him that no Aliens have been found in our solar system or that he has Guitar class at 6pm. After so many What if's I have to tell him "I don't entertain What If's anymore!" He stops for about a half hour and then starts up again.

Another aspect of Middle Child Syndrome is creativity. Middle Child is quite artsy and creative, by our family's standards. By anyone else's standards we would fail miserably. But this child likes acting and artsy projects. The picture at the beginning is of a spaceship he made. I found out about the project the night before it was due on accident from my best friend. Every year since her son and mine started school she would call me to ask me how we were progressing on a project for school and I would be completely clueless about any project! For this particular project he had to make something that reminded him of his State that he reported on earlier that year, which happened to be Nevada. The guidelines were 1) It had to be smaller than the child, 2) Have fun, and 3) Have fun! Those are really helpful. Don't get me started on school projects, hate 'em with a passion! If any of you know he loves Aliens so we decided to make something reminding him of the famous Area 51. Middle Child and another friend had decided recently that when they grew up they wanted to work at Area 51 so they could see all the aliens we had caught. So naturally, that was what he chose. So the night before I am at the store buying glitter glue and paper plates and bowls in order to make the spaceship. He made half that night and fininshed it in the morning in the nick of time for school. It wasn't dry, so he had to be careful. But he was so proud. And once again, a spaceship is unusual so he would be drawing attention to himself!

After this post the next few days are going to be torturous when he answers the phone.