Aardvarks, Large Words and Reckless Sledding

Jesse reminded me of a story that needed to be blogged and since it is rather short, I thought I would go ahead and write down several at once. After all...if I forget to write them down, how am I ever going to write a book about my amazing child? (Stage Mom Much??? Maybe....) So, I have a few more Drew funnies to add to the collection.

A couple of days ago after a nap, Drew was curled up in my lap and rather grumpy. Whether he was grumpy because he was still sleepy or because I had just informed him that we weren't watching TV right then, I'm not entirely certain (maybe both). His blank stare at the remote however, caused him to notice it was full of numbers and letters. We started talking about which numbers and letters they were, when he suddenly jumped up and shouted, "Mom!! I can't be talking about this right now! I can't be talking about this right now because I don't know what an AARDVARK is!!!" I can assure you that despite the fact I was shaking with laughter, the next several minutes were spent in joint research on the computer so that my 3 year old could adequately explain what an aardvark is...should anyone ever ask.

I love the fact that he is fascinated by large and unusual words. He always says them with such an exaggerated inflection too that I can't help but be amused. His newest is "marvelous". As in, "Mommy, this is a marvelous cake. It is the best one I had ever ate!"

Speaking of food, apparently the old saying, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" becomes applicable at a very early age. Until recently, I have not made an effort to cook a full meal unless Jesse was going to be home and with his schedule at SYC, that doesn't happen very often. I was in the mood to cook last week though and so one night I just cooked for Drew and I. The child proceeded to shovel in an entire plate of homemade macaroni, vegetable medley and chicken (nuggets, that is, since he refuses to acknowledge anything else as "real" chicken) as if he had never seen a full plate of food. He then moved on to climbing all over my lap, hugging and kissing and saying, "You're such a sweet mommy. You're the best mommy ever. Did you know you were so nice??? You cooked a meal just for me and you. Just for me and you!! You're such a nice mommy....you're even the best mommy ever." Clearly, only cooking when Jesse is at home is a thing of the past.

Also a thing of the past is my ability to keep the little monkey's adrenaline seeking behavior at bay. We went sledding at his best friend's house a couple of weeks ago and made a trail with the 4 wheeler and snow plow. He and Jim managed to jump the trail in the sled and were headed straight for the water truck. Jim jumped out, we were all screaming at Drew to jump off and running to try and catch him in time. The boy waited until right before he hit the truck and then just laid down in the sled and slid right under the truck and out the other side! That was frightening enough but being the mommy of a preschooler (and not a much older child), I assumed it was all an accident and he was just as scared as I was. While not wanting him to be scared, I decided that it was probably a good thing it had happened so that he knew to be more cautious next time. Imagine my surprise a couple of days later when suddenly out of the blue he asked, "Mom, how come you guys were yelling at me to jump off? I was just going to go under the truck...that's what I wanted to do." Somehow I'm going to have to come to terms with the fact that this child is genetically predisposed to be reckless and rush seeking. GRrrrr....

At the moment, Drew is running around, armed with a Nerf sword and showing severe dissapointment that he can't seem to unearth any evil doers that need slaying. Not to worry though, his imagination is vivid and his vocabulary is great, I'm sure at any moment this situation will be rectified and more blog material will magically appear.

Dear Man Child

Dear Precious Little Man Child,

I've decided that there is something important you need to know. We focus a lot of time on the fact that you are precious, that you are my gift from God, that mommy always wanted a little boy and I could not be happier that God gave me you. We spend a lot of time on this because it is all very true and always will be. I think it is important that your rotten little self knows why we spoil you so rotten.

However, I seem to have missed an essential detail so far in all of our talks and it appears that it is time to remedy that. You see, just as I am so very blessed (beyond blessed even) to have you, you lucked out in the "mommy of a boy" department. Long before you were born, I was a die hard football fan...and speaking of Die Hard, I believe that it is one of the greatest movies ever. I love just about any action movie (the bigger the gun and explosion, the better). I eat guy food, watch super hero movies, and have no issue with jumping into a game of tackle football. I love boy noise and as you get older, I can easily foresee our house full of boys being fed chili, hot dogs and an abundance of baked goods. I will rough house, sword fight, or play the damsel in distress if needed. I will cheer you on as you run, jump, climb and tackle your Daddy all over the house and when he is working late nights or gone on youth retreats, I will stand in his place (at least until you're 8 and as big as I am).

I say all of this to say, as badly as I want a little girl, I'm pretty well cut out to be the mother of boys. I mean, I even listened to you talking about shooting Geeda's gun over Christmas break without having a panic attack. There is still that one little issue that we seemed to have forgotten though and I guess now is as good a time as any. So here it is, I will never and I do mean NEVER be ok with walking into the bathroom and dragging my pants leg and foot through a puddle of pee. Hit the toilet...or else.

Love,

Momma