My Boys Make Me Smile

Today my boys made me smile. My YS is rapidly acquiring more words. I'm talking the speed of light! Not that he is speaking in sentences or anything, but every day he is adding tons more words to his vocabulary. We went for our typical walk in the park today. MS was on his bicycle and YS in the stroller. As we crossed the bridge to enter the walking trail we encountered another mother with a 4 year old on a bike and an infant in a stroller (both boys). She had never been on the trail and didn't even know it existed. I spent a few minutes extolling the benefits of this particular trail (heavily shaded, beautiful environment, uneven terrain which is both challenging and fun, and frequented by dogs - a must for boys).

They decided to join us for our walk (I don't think they realized what they were getting into since the trail is over a mile long and they had already been walking around the upper part of the park, near the playground). As we walked, I explained that the trail is always decorated in October because the park district holds a haunted hayride. This year, the decorations have been in a different spot and that bothers my MS. I mentioned that one year they had gruesome clowns up splattered with blood and everything.

As soon as I said the word blood, my YS looked up at us and touched his head, saying "Blood ... blood ... head ... ow!" I had to smile and explain that last night he was jumping on the trampoline with his brother and somehow (I think MS played a part in the "somehow") managed to fall onto the trains he had been holding in his hands. Surprisingly, usually it is YS beating up on MS. The other day he bit MS on the back. We're gonna have to nip that in the bud.

MS made me smile for a different reason. Today, he noticed me doing a word search. This is not something I normally do, but when I was searching for more of those rebus puzzles, I dug up two of my old variety puzzle books and happened to start a word search. He, of course, wanted to do it with me, but it was a special kind where the words are zig-zagged throughout the letters. I redirected him to his Halloween coloring book, which had simple word searches with 8 words to find. I did one of the puzzles with him - showing him how to look for the first letter and then see if the second letter was next to it, etc.

I told him to spend his quiet time on the porch with the coloring book while I put YS down for a nap. When I returned five minutes later, MS showed me that he had found two words and circled them. He had no clue what the words said, but he was able to find them in the puzzle and circle them correctly. I was blown away. Of course, I figured my husband wouldn't believe me ("oh, how she gushes over those children"), so after dinner, I asked MS to show Daddy and big brother what he could do. He did another 8 word word-search with assistance on only two words (one of which was Halloween - I mean, 9 letters for goodness sake). How is this boy going to wait almost two years to start kindergarten??

My ES made me smile tonight, as well. For the past week, we have been getting a few calls at 9:15 or 9:30. The phone only rings once and we can't see a number displayed on the caller ID. Of course, we assumed it was one of ES's friends. Last night, as I was driving ES and a friend to the football game, ES received a crank call on his cell phone. I asked if he thought perhaps this was the same person who had been calling the house after 9 p.m. lately. He grinned and said, in his little drawn-out whiny voice, "Nooo, that would be me. I called on my cell phone."

So, tonight, just after putting the little boys down around 8:30, the phone rang. Once. I walked into his room and said, "Do you have your cell phone?"

He said, (again, voice with the inflections), "Mayybeee."

I made him give me the phone. I explained that from now on, the phone has its own bed on the kitchen counter. At 9 p.m., I expect everyone to be in their respective beds and his cell phone to be in bed on the kitchen counter.

His dad walked in and gathered what was going on. He half-grinned at ES. ES looked down from his loft bed and sneered, "OWWNNED!"

His dad said, "No, actually, I think you are the one who just got owned, mister. From now on your phone is off limits and on the counter at bedtime." Let's hope the pranks stay that tame. He comes from a line of pranksters (now there's a blog post for another day)! So glad they make me smile.