My Son Ferris Bueller

When my boy was in third grade, he came home one day with his school pictures. I immediately asked him to hand it over for inspection. I scanned the rows looking for his face. Our family is usually on the front row due to a height challenge. But I actually found him on the third row back. He looked like he had just got the surprise of his life. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes were big as saucers. We laughed ourselves silly.

A few years later he was at school having the eye test. Just for fun he decided to fail it on purpose. He squinted and squirmed and called every F a P and every C an O. He was taken aside afterwards by a kind elderly lady who said, "Sweetheart, when you get home you need to tell your parents to make you an appointment at the eye doctor." He laughed all the way back to class.

More recently he had to miss a football game for his back brace check up. His team wore his number on their helmet. The team called him before the game. They were seriously in tears. I wanted to remind them this isn't cancer people, it's just a back brace. But I let them have their moment of inspiration.

At school he is loved by all, including the staff. When they had intramural football games during lunch last week, we were out of town. They decided to hold off playing until he came back! Several teachers enjoy having him come to their classroom just to hang out and talk Cougar football. And don't even get me started when it comes to his coaches. They are crazy for the kid.

So yesterday my husband and I were picking him up from school and we asked ourselves, "who is this kid?" Then it hit us: we're raising Ferris Bueller! Only one day he'll decide to take the day off school and the principal will call to see if he can join him.