Lunch For Two

Four weeks into the school year, and I think Seth has found a buddy. His name is Ethan and for safety reasons, I'll omit his last name but I think his parents might be Tom Cruise fans. Ethan and Seths' desks sit side by side in the classroom, and they seem to have moved their classroom friendship onto the playground during recess. This is very relieving, because for the first couple of weeks, the answer I received after asking what he did for recess was almost always, "I ran around by myself." Not exactly music to my ears. At least he wasn't getting picked on.

I first noticed Ethan on back-to-school night when he entered the classroom with his parents shortly after we arrived. While he was showing his parents his desk and different areas of the classroom, I perceived him to be an extremely bright kid, very precocious, whose parents were older and had that distracted, frazzled, mad scientist look about them. In other words, they didn't show a lot of concern about their style or appearance, but looked like happy, smart, normal and supportive parents. I knew that I wouldn't mind if Ethan and Seth chose to be friends.

Today in gym, Seth and Ethan were partners during this seemingly simple game where they tried to throw bean bags into each other's hula-hoops. Their object was to try to not let any land inside the ring. Not super physical, but maybe that's not the point of gym class anymore.

I've since learned that in addition to having adjacent desks, Ethan and Seth are in their own reading group. I'm a bit relieved, because I have seen Ethan's papers when I've been into volunteer and he really is a smart little boy. Seth's teacher has her work cut out for her because there are kids that aren't reading at all, and ones like Ethan, who it must be hard to keep challenged. I don't think Seth is quite as advanced, but I'm glad his teacher is bringing Seth along for the ride. Don't misunderstand me, Seth is very smart, and a great reader, but Ethan is advanced, closer to a fifth or sixth grade reading level.

I've also learned that they share a lunch.

That little tidbit of information first caught my attention earlier this week. As I was making lunch, and putting some grapes in a small sandwich baggie, Seth said, "Oh, good. Ethan really likes grapes."

Upon further questioning, I've discovered that Seth and Ethan sharing lunch is a daily habit mostly due to the fact that, "Ethan doesn't get very good stuff in his lunch." Apparently, he never gets a sandwich, just pretzels and applesauce, and never anything to drink. I guess Ethan asked if he could have some of Seth's lunch one day and their new tradition was formed.

I haven't really minded, though. Seth assures me that he still gets enough food and besides, isn't that what school friends do? I remember trading my Zinger for a Ho-Ho.

This bizarre thing is, since I have known about their own little law of consecration, I have started to pack with Ethan in mind. I feel a sense of pride when I pack some good, fresh, juicy grapes. And yesterday, instead of three, I put four little gluten-free gingersnaps in Seth's lunch because I figured four was more fair.

Today is my volunteer day and last week, as I left, I promised Seth and several kids that I would eat lunch with them the next time I visited their classroom. Not wanting cafeteria food, or the humble gluten free offerings I would usually send with Seth, I picked up a foot-long ham sandwich from Subway. While I was ordering, I wondered if I needed to get more for Ethan. I decided buying extra food was unnecessary and stuck with the foot-long, half for Seth, half for me, with extra veggies, and added the three cookies for a dollar. That's right. One for me. One for Seth. One for Ethan.

When I pulled our lunch out of its bag, Ethan in his socially clueless, very precocious way declared, "Seth and I share a lunch now. What did you get?" I would have been bugged, perhaps even should have been, but I wasn't. I just joined their tribe-- laid out my offerings and let them divy up the spread. One ham sandwich, one large bottle of apple juice, three chocolate-chip cookies, ten ritz crackers and two rice cakes.

Ritz crackers and rice cakes? No wonder he doesn't like his lunches. Poor kid. He obviously isn't starving, though, because when he saw the sandwich, he announced that he didn't like onions and thus didn't want any sandwich (one of my onions must have strayed). Then he went on to say, "but I would enjoy one of the delicious cookies and some refreshing beverage." Yeah, I know.

Ethan giving the "hang loose" sign.

Seth tries out this new sign language.

It may seem like Seth is getting the bum end of the deal, but Seth ate over half of Ethan's Ritz crackers and seemed completely content. I guess it really is win-win.

But I think I might start packing two juice boxes. Watching them take turns with the bottle of apple juice kind of grossed me out.

I wonder what flavor Ethan likes?