Where You Be At, Romeo?

I met a little boy on Sunday morning while I was out walking Murphy. He rode up on his bike and just started talking my ear off right away. We had a long discussion about dogs. He told me about every dog he'd had, and how one got hit by a car and died. I told him about Mojo. I said "I cried a lot." and he sounded relieved and said "Me too! I cried everyday for a whole week."

Obviously, it wasn't hard to fall absolutely in love with him. So freakin cute.

I asked him his name, and I had to ask him three times to say it for me, and I still can't tell you what it is, exactly. He said "My mama said it ain't no Gadsden name. It's from I-Talian." (excuse me while I fall over dead from cuteness) So, I ask him if he has a nickname, and he tells me yes, that a lot of people call him "Ro" or "Romeo". And then he said:

"See, Romeo happened back when I was 7. I went to this fair, and these girls were there, and they asked my friend what his name was. And we said "Gator" and they was like "Like alligator?" and we said "Yeah." so then they asked for my name, and I told 'em, and they said "Romeo?" and so now sometimes people call me that, cause of them girls."

My favorite part of that little speech was "back when I was 7". I'm pretty sure he was 8 years old. He just made "back when I was 7" sound SO LONG ago.

Yeah, well... I did like Teddy Grahams, mom. BACK WHEN I WAS 7.

~