Aidan at Nine

I’m in the den playing a Mickey Mouse game on the computer with Elisa when I hear Lydia making a fusing kind of noise from her room where she is also playing some kind of computer game. I get up, feeling lucky to have a place with a den and a separate bedroom for the kids but not so lucky as to enjoy whatever those rooms descriptions meant on the brochure.

When I get to Lydia, I ask her what is wrong and she says in her Chinese flavored English “Aidan says I cannot play computer.” I ask her why which is pointless because she just says “I don’t know” and then continues with some kind barely audible whine. I move to the other side of the room and ask Aidan why he said Lydia cannot play the computer, trying to make sure the “the” is enunciated clearly. And this is how I find Aidan at nine.

He tells me because Lydia broke the one hour game rule last week by playing two hours and because Lydia always plays first. This is not the first time Aidan has set and/or enforced rules on Lydia and not the first time that I told Aidan to let me be the one to enforce the rules. Silently I am wondering if the peer enforcement is all bad and Lydia certainly seems to listen to Aidan even if she does whine about it. Aidan knows I don’t want him to be the rule enforcer and I can see a little tension in his face while he explains to me his logic. He is also frustrated that he has to be doing English homework while Lydia is playing a computer game five feet away.

Aidan at nine is a boy who cares deeply about his sisters, his mom, and sometimes his dad. With Elisa he is a mentor and playmate. With Lydia he is a boss and sometimes coconspirator.  With his mom he is so attached he cannot help by say loving things to her when they are alone. With his dad, he talks aimlessly about things I stopped paying attention to 20 seconds in (maybe I should edit that out).

When he is happy an excited his voice reaches an octave that belongs on the floor above us. And below us. It is a wonder the neighbors have not complained. Or maybe they did and we just could not hear them. At nine, Aidan still gets frustrated but less overwhelmed by his emotions (in a few years he will get the second round of emotional avalanche to deal with).

Aidan continues to maximize his purchasing power. When I pick him and Lydia up after school our routine is to buy a snack for the ride home from the convenience store across the street from the school. This started out as a one snack per person thing and for Lydia and her friend Naomi it still is. However, Aidan has figured out how much he can spend on one snack and then spreads the money across snacks. Last Thursday it was an ice cream, a hot dog, and a sprite. Aidan at nine can eat which is to say he is an Allio. His favorite food; salmon sushi.

Aidan is not the tallest boy in his class which is to say he is the shortest. He’s not too bothered by it anymore except when people treat him different because he’s short such as the soccer coach who kept teaming him up with the younger boys.

Aidan enjoys the Mr. Beane comics and Chinese crosstalk which must come from the Chao side. His laugh is load and tone deaf.

Aidan wants a dog and thinks all dogs like him, which they probably do. There are no plans to get a dog anytime soon. Yang got him a mouse instead.