Double Digit

Well, I had originally intended to begin addressing by 2nd Unwritten Rule of Neuroblastoma Treatment today but I had a few important neuroblastoma family treatment emails to address this morning and time slipped away. That is really okay because, to be honest, there was another funny story that I wanted to write down so that I could remember it for eternity.

The other day Graham was at school. His class is working on addition. He is in Pre-K so they are learning things like "1 + 7", "2 + 3", and the like. They are working on single digit addition.

Now, before I tell you this story, I should tell you that Graham is a clever kid. He just scored in the 98th percentile in a national achievement test. There is no doubt that he is smart. I tell you this because, by the end of this story, you may wonder.

Regardless, from what Graham has told me, the teacher was having the kids work on math problems on the board. For some reason, she challenged Graham with a math problem which had a two digit answer. In other words, it was something similar to "9 + 2". Graham had never done math at this level and became confused. The teacher explained that the answer was a "double digit." She used this as an opportunity to teach the class about this next level of math. Well, throughout the rest of the day many of the boys started calling him "Double Digit." By now, you know how sensitive he is. Due to the fact that he had missed the question at the board and it embarrassed him, Double Digit now became a bad name. He was quite upset.

Fast forward to yesterday. It is now common place in Graham's class that, whenever someone is doing something nerdy or silly, the kids in the class will call them a Double Digit. Believe it or not, it has become a bad word.

Ironically, yesterday Graham got mad at another kid yesterday and starting calling him a "Double Digit." This disrupted the class. In the end, Graham was asked to change his green sticker to yellow and he was sent home with a note about being disrespectful to his friends.

While I completely understand the teachers point of view I could not help but laugh to myself. That is so typical of Graham. He is such an incredibly good boy. Like any child, he gets frustrated and mad on occasion. But, I am always amazed by the way he chooses to express himself. The meanest thing he can ever think to call someone is a "not nice head" or a "meany." As mad as he gets, the meanest thing he will do is threaten not to snuggle with you at bed time or not invite you to his birthday party. Those are the worst things he can possibly think of and a sign of how incredibly gentle his heart is.

I hate to brake it to him but he is a double digit.

God, I love him.

Furthermore, given my purpose that probably makes me a quadruple digit, making him only 1 or 2 digits off the old block.