The Things They Do

I wanted to record for you and posterity a couple of funny stories (and a couple of funny pictures).

Evelyn: Mom's Helper

I often take Jess and Evelyn to the Botanical Gardens in the morning. It's a place where they can run any-which-way they choose without danger of them getting away from me and into a street or something. Anyhow, last week we were there and Jess was starting to get hot and tired and hungry. I was trying to coax him ever onward toward the exit, but he was pretty much at melt-down point--throwing himself on the ground, fussing, crying, basically tying to publicly shame me into carrying him the rest of the way out. As we were still too far from the exit for me to manage carrying both of them the rest of the way (and there would be NO chance of my carrying just one), I was trying to convince him to get up and walk. I'd manage to get him up, he'd walk about 10 feet and then throw himself back down in a fit. Exasperated, I said to Evie, "I wish you'd go get your brother and get him to walk!"

And to my surprise, she did.

She walked over to him. Squatted down in front of him until she had his attention, then she held her hand out and pulled him up and got him walking. Needless to say, I was in shock. Both that she understood the task I'd set her, and that he went along. This time he walked for about 1 minute, before his next fit. I asked her again to go get him to walk, and she repeated her performance. Amazing smart girl!

Jess: Mr. Confessor

One of Jess's favorite words these days is "NO!" He often yells at the little people in his toy school bus. He picks them up and says to them (sometimes shaking his finger): "NO, NO, NO, NO!" He never explains what they've done wrong. (But, my own suspicion is that they've been standing up in their seats.)

Sometimes when he's in another room or on the deck, he'll start yelling "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" And he'll keep on till I eventually come to wherever he is to investigate. Experience has taught me to come quickly when he's yelling like this, because he's usually yelling at himself. When he's doing something that he's not supposed to do--say, climbing onto the dining room table, bouncing on the couch, pulling on the phone wire attached to the side of the house--and I'm not there to catch him at it, he confesses from a distance. "NO! NO! NO!"

It's very useful actually.

(And, for the record, I have no idea where he got the idea to yell like that. I'm quite sure I've never yelled "NO! NO! NO!" while shaking a pointing finger at him. (Really.) In fact, I'm sure I almost always manage a sweet smile, a kiss, and something more like: "Oh, no thank you my precious boy...")