Holes in the TV and Popcorn in My Ears

Having a boy is quite the adventure, and from what I can tell it's quite a different adventure than having a girl. Not that girls don't come with their own set of "challenges" but boys definitely test you early and often. Seeing what Clinton gets into now and the amount of damage he is able to do scares me a wee bit as to what may lie ahead in our future. I have a feeling we are going to have a lot of stories to tell as the days pass us by...

*One night last week I was making "dinner" (if chicken nuggets and mandarin oranges count as dinner) and I heard a hammering noise coming from the living room. This didn't make me immediately jump and run because Clinton has a tool bench with toy tools in the nearby dining room. So, I figured he had grabbed a fake hammer and was taking it to some poor pitiful piece of furniture in my ever-wearing house. Suddenly, mommy intuition told me what I was hearing was more than a toy hammer on a sturdy piece of furniture that could take a beating. As I rounded the corner it took me just a second to register what I was actually seeing. Somehow--and we've yet to figure out how--Clinton got his hands on a life saving device for the car that Rodney's mom had bought him several years ago. It resembles a hammer, but rather than having a flat side for driving a nail there is a metal pointed side for breaking a car window, should you be trapped in your car. This metal pointed end was being used as Clinton's hammer....into Rodney's TV. The flat screen TV that Rodney patiently waited for, spent months deciding on, and got for his birthday last year. Aaahhh! I could just see what Rodney's face was going to look like when he found out. There were quite a few dents in the screen that rubbed out, but Clinton managed to get his "hammer" through the screen in one spot leaving a little white hole just big enough to drive you crazy when watching TV...perfect. Rodney was actually quite calm about it and treated it as it was...a thing. No one lost a limb or a life...glad we can keep things in perspective.

*Clinton's favorite snack is popcorn...and he has learned to say it and sign it. I was surprised to hear him say it but even more surprised when he started copying me signing it. The first night he said it, he kept following me around with one of his bowls. I kept asking him, "Do you want cereal? Grapes? Fish?" All to which he responded, "Noooooooeeeee." Then I could hear him saying something but very quietly. I bent down to hear him trying to say popcorn...my heart just melted. It's such a big deal when this little person you've been one-way communicating with for so long starts communicating back...with real words. So, every new word is a big deal to the mommy who gets to hear it. It doesn't always sound the same...sometimes it's pupcorn, or sometimes it's hopcarn, and sometimes it's ppcrn...with no vowels....weird. Now that he can say it, he asks for it OFTEN. So, the "popcorn in my ears" is really him saying it over and over and over...as he loves to eat it. He was enjoying his bowl of popcorn and watching his movie the other night, when he just decided to get up, stand in front of me, pour the rest of the popcorn on the floor and start stomping on it. Thank goodness for dogs that love popcorn!

*Here is one of my more favorite things that Clinton does...one of those happy, laugh out loud moments that helps you get through the frustrating ones...jammin' in the car, wearing my sunglasses (which he insists on wearing all the time). Yes, I was driving and filming. But I was driving home from a girlfriend's house through two neighborhoods I know very well, only going 20mph, and not really even looking behind me. I just got my arm lodged between my side and the seat and tried to hold the camera steady, hoping for the best. The moment was too cute not to capture!



Remembering that things are things and this time is precious,