Gipper and he knows it.

So, .....Oscar. This has been an odd year for us. Fourteen is a rough age to navigate. Not a boy, not a teenager. Sometimes it feels like he has become an entirely different person! Remember this or this? How about this? Not anymore! We were at my moms in January and all of a sudden he and Elijah had common interests. Oscar knows every rapper, graffiti artist, and hip new slang word. Everything is now either swaggy or not swaggy. The boy that didn't wear jeans until he was 12 because denim felt to "straight" on his skin now swoons over clothes at Macy's. He wears sunglasses. Everywhere. This gold chain? Not just a gag joke from Siobhan. He just flat out turned into a cool kid.

He went from being a boy that was so completely awkward around girls, to being completely at ease. Disneyland last summer was amazing with him. He actually requested pictures of him alone with princesses! I should also mention that he has had a girlfriend for the past year.

Unfortunately, Oscar got a little swept up in his new "bad boy" image and was hanging with some kids that were a little bit of trouble. Oscar has always been so sweet and shy and quiet that I have always had 100% confidence that he was not capable of getting into trouble. Unfortunately last month I found out that I was wrong. His grades had plummeted and he got in some trouble with the law. He stole a couple of soft drinks from a supermarket with his crowd and they were all detained. Everybody I talked to said, " Lot's of kids do this, it's not the end of the world." Well, it's not, but it made me incredibly sad AND required court dates. They do not mess around, kids or not. Thankfully we can now put that behind us. He was truly remorseful and devastated that he had dissapointed us. I feel he has truly learned his lesson.

That little episode led me to decide to home school him and get him away from any bad influences. So far, it has gone pretty damn great. He is a 100% different kid. We have had so much fun together. Here is my theory: I feel like Oscar and I lost a pretty important chunk of time in his life, when he was with his Dad. This is making up for that. We have all day together, half of it alone. If he does not learn one single thing (which is unlikely) this time will be worth it. I am confident he feels the same. He hugs me! Without prompting! Next year he will start high school, in our district, which he was not in for junior high. It will be a fresh start for him. I think he will do great.

He has become super engrossed in his artwork, as of late. He LOVES lettering, stencils and spray paints. He is a huge fan of Banksy, D*Face and Space Invader. He studies every book he can find at the library on street art. We recently pulled some walls down in our halls and have been letting him spray paint them with his stencils and whatnot. I recently bought myself a pair of white Vans and can't wait to see what he paints on them.

There you have it. Oscar, so far. I sometimes feel like the Evil Queen. But I think this is my job at this age. For the most part I think he appreciates that I am the bad guy to blame and he doesn't have to be the one to bow out of situations with friends. I like to think of us like this picture sometimes. We may butt heads, but we still smile at each other. I just love him.