New meaning for "Trouble is a brewing"!

The past month or so I have really struggled with pain management for my knee which needs to badly be replaced. Walking on it for long periods, of an hour or more just makes me physically ill sometimes and today I needed to take a nap with Sera when I got back from teaching ESY. We had gone on a field trip and had several students not wanting to cooperate... I was feeling like a dishrag and was in no way able to do much else but lie down to rest.

While I went to lie down, I left Andy with very specific instructions to sit in the kitchen and play his Nintendo 64 or watch a video. He was so excited to be able to do this, since I don't often allow him to spend much screen time. He had even told me on the way home that he wanted me to be able to go lie down and get off my leg and had promised me that he would be good while I rested.

I woke to a very strong aroma of Starbucks coffee! Sera was still in her toddler bed sleeping soundly ( her bed is in my room). I went out and the aroma got even stronger. As I walked into my kitchen I truly was shocked! A tornado could have hit the house and left the wake of chaos that I was greeted with! The cabinets were all open, the snack drawer open, the mixer was on the floor, hot chocolate packets were open and spilled on the counters and the floor, an new entire bag of Starbuck's coffee was all over the kitchen! There were coffee grounds all over the counter, in water under all the appliances, all over the floor, wiped on the bread maker, an entire roll of wet paper towels wadded up and stuffed in the top of the trash can, and my little one cup coffee maker was unplugged and sitting in the middle of the floor, covered in coffee grounds....

I am so glad that I sent him to his room while I cleaned up the mess and tried to figure out why he would be so disobedient and get into so much trouble after having promised me that he was going to be good. thankfully, I also called a friend and asked her to talk to me while I cleaned, because I was soooo upset with him.

When I was calm and able to talk to him without wanting to shout, I discovered something that was so worth all the mess I had just cleaned up!!

My sweet, loving, wonderful and very inquisitive son had tried to make me a cup of coffee!!!

Aubri had not heard any of his activities since her TV was son and so was his. She was devastated and so unhappy with him and herself that she had not heard him. Thankfully, I was able to keep from being outwardly angry with her and remembered to not yell !

He will lose his privileges to play games in a different room from his sister when I cannot supervise him and will have to help clean up the mess.... but someday he will hopefully still love me and want to help me when I am old and be able to make a good cup of coffee without making such a mess!

It is true that his middle name should have probably been trouble, but his kind of trouble is the best kind!!

Future gravedigger????

My Andy is certainly a special little boy! He is so inquisitive and has to take everything apart to see how it works. Recently he has dismantled a telephone, one of Sera's electronic toys and his remote switch for his bedroom lights. He wants to know about everything and how it works! He is loving summer school and has been very excited to be learning about dinosaurs. He talks about dinosaurs and dinosaur bones on every chance he can get lately!

This morning as we were driving to school, he was singing "Dem Bones", with very unusual connections, such as the ear bone is connected to the mouth bone and the tummy bone is connected to the butt bone.... I was smiling to myself as I listened to him signing and was totally shocked to hear what he asked me next! He very calmly asked, " Mommy, you know you said that you were going to take me to see my grandma some day." I replied that he had just seen Evelyn and and asked if he wanted to go see her today. He said, " No, Mommie, my grandma in the ground!" ( My mother is buried quite a distance north in a very small town cemetery and to save gas this year, we did not go up and just thought about her and talked about her) I was surprised, and asked him why he was asking me this. He said, very matter of factly, " I want to take a shovel with me and dig her up and open her box and see what is inside".

It was all I could do to keep a straight face and tell him we do not want to dig his grandma up or anyone else's grandma, grandpa, dad, mom , brother or sister up out of the ground. Their bodies are empty shells and they need to rest and we should respect that. We can think of their spirits and remember how much we love them and that is really all that is left of people here on earth after they die.

When he said, " But Mommie! They are dead, they won't care!" I truly was left speechless!

I finally managed to tell him that it was illegal for him to ever dig anyone up from a cemetery and that the police would not be very happy with us if he tried.

I wish I could say that I am not worried about what the police may actually show up on my doorstep someday to tell me that he has "explored"!