We Aren’t Getting Married Until We Are 29

The week before parent-teacher conferences we received a paper from school with suggested questions and topics that we might want to cover in our conferences. I have a good relationships with all 3 teachers and if there are any issues I know about them so I don’t have a lot of questions at conference time. Sure I was happy to see Juliana’s high grades and ever improving test scores, and it was great to learn more about Wyatt opening up and being more interactive in class, but this time I went with one question on my mind.

Scott and I sat at the tiny table and I looked down at the stack of papers in front of Ruslan’s teacher and said, “We can get to the official papers later, but I want to talk about Lulu*!”

Ms. O slammed her hands down on the table and exclaimed, “Yes, we should definitely talk about Ruslan and Lulu!”

Ruslan has been talking about Lulu every day for weeks. He told us how amazing she is, and that she was as tall as a second grader (and it was ok if he had to stand on a step to be as tall), and that her hair is so pretty, and that he loves her so much. I asked if Lulu knew that he liked her and he said yes because he makes finger hearts for her.

Ms. O told us that one day Ruslan emptied Lulu’s mailbox when it was time to pack up and neglected his own papers to help her get ready to go. He had to be reminded that he is responsible for his belongings and Lulu is responsible for her own stuff. Ruslan told Ms. O that he loves Lulu and Lulu replied that she loved Ruslan too.

We also brought up Ruslan and Lulu when we were talking to Wyatt’s teacher since the two classes spend so much time together. And she told us about a day when Ms. O was out and she found Ruslan sitting in the corner of the room surrounded by all of the girls in his class and he was sad. Why was he sad…they had to work with a partner and Lulu was with someone else. Every other girl in the class was sitting there consoling him and volunteering to be his partner and he could only focus on the one girl who couldn’t be his partner.

Most days Ruslan tells me that Lulu is his favorite person and that they are going to get married. Of course I don’t need to worry about that happening any time soon. Ruslan knows that they can’t married now, he says that they are waiting until they are 29.

He hugs her goodbye at the end of the day and blows her kisses from the bus. I need to meet this girl who has stolen my place as Ruslan’s favorite person.

*name changed