Remembering the good 'ol days

After dinner conversation lead to us talking, picking on each other as usual and this post......taking time to reflect and remember some of the good times (and ammunition/embarrassment for the girlfriend/wife times) from C's youth.

1. Playing in the mud constantly to the point of we strip him down to his skivies and hose him off outside before even putting him in the bathtub (ask us about naked baby boy beer sometime). I think the kid thought there was always a "pre-bath" until he reached the age of 6 - 7.

2. Playing blow the stop lights from red to green. Especially at the intersections of any street and Pennisula Drive. You locals all know how long those lights can be, poor kid would be light headed by the time he would finally blow it green and be soooo proud of himself. (oh we should be put in jail just for that child abuse right there!)

3. Ben telling the stories of the Lake Erie Monster. What is the LEM you ask? Well C was (still is) always interested in construction and at this particular time PennDOT was working on I-79. It was all torn up and C was chattering away about the different trucks (backhoes, dumpers, diggers, carla compactors and chewers....remember this is a 3 year old child describing the construction equipment) and Ben preceeds to tell C that LEM is the one that tears up the road not the chewer that C sees. Ben describes LEM as a dragon type animal (who can fly) with big teeth that comes and tears up the road at night only when we are all sleeping and C can't see him and LEM sleeps during the day in Lake Erie. But wait it gets better! Of all the questions that C kept battering Ben with..."Dad what does the LEM do with all the concrete he chews up?" (because of course no one else is working and the dump trucks are all sleeping!) Ben doesn't bat an eye and says "Well C, you know all those rocks out in the lake (jetties), those are the LEM poop". I about died from trying not to laugh and C well he thought it was all logical. So keep your eye open for the Lake Erie Monster and in our family he lives on!

4. "Nakes mom, nakes!" Running toward me as fast as his little legs could take him, partially covered in his precious mud and I'm thinking "oh crap, how can I be brave enough to deal with snakes and get them out of his mud pit". As I take my little boy's hand and he walks me to his mud pit so he can show me where the "nakes" are, to my great relief I find.........worms! I try to explain to C, that these little wiggly things are not snakes but worms but to no avail. Mom is dead wrong....they are "nakes". So I was supermom, got those bad "nakes" out of his precious mud pit and all was right is C's world again that day. To this day when I see a worm, those words echo in my head....."nakes, mom, nakes".

5. One of C's nicknames is Bear. His great-grandparents gave it too him but he also got it because as we were purchasing a car one day and finalizing the paperwork we had C with us. He wasn't much older than 7 months and the car salesmen were astonished by the size of his hands. Everyone in the whole place had to come and see him and the GM came over, picked his hand up and stated "look at the paws on this guy". So yeah, Bear fits and he's blessed to have gotten his hands from his great-grandfather S. and his great, great grandfather H, whom are both outstanding men.

6. We bought him from Wal-Mart and could exchange/return him anytime! Yes he believed this for a long time, till probably about the age of 7 - 8. One day as we were checking out at Wal-Mart I was joking around with C and stated that I could return him and get my money back. He was bright enough to state he didn't have a price tag on him, but I was quick enough to tell him that his bar code was behind his ear so he couldn't see it. Well with the help of a wonderful Wal-Mart employee that saw that laughter in all this, she held the hand scanner behind his ear and scanned something at the same time so he heard the "beep" sound and saw "his price" show up. The look on his face....priceless!

7. Rescue Heroes. These small sized plastic action figure heroes from Fischer Price (check out their website...but I warn you now they are addicting!) changed our world all because one Christmas, Ben and I picked up a truck that we had no clue what it was. Low and behold it was one of the Rescue Heroes truck, which led us to getting the action figures, which led traveling the tri-state area (yes I did just say that) looking for those precious action figures that our son loves to this day. Infact as we were doing spring cleaning and *gasp* I suggest that we donate the 4 HUGE tubs of Rescue Heroes to the children's ward of a local hospital or C's old pre-school, I got the look that I just killed his best friend, with the drop down jaw! I seriously thought C was going to break down and cry. How can a mom live with that.....so needless to say we came to an understanding that I store them until C gets his own apartment/house at which time all 4 HUGE tubs go with him (even if he has to sleep on top of them!).

8. Ben telling C he was born with a monkey tail! (oh this is still on going to this day!) One of those times when Ben and C are going at (just a couple years ago, infact), picking on each other and Ben pipes out that C was born with a monkey tail but we had it surgical removed when he was a baby because it was hard to put diapers on him with his tail. C being the smart one that he is, is bantering back with "well I don't have a stub". Ben "they took it completely off at your butt". C "I don't have a scar". Ben "Can you see your butt?". You see the look on C's face like "I really want to look at my butt now, but I can't, I know I can't see my butt, do I really have a scar, Oh my God I was born with a money tail!" The poor kid looks at me with this desperate, sad look on his face with one word echoing out of his mouth "Mom?".......I lost it, could not keep from laughing any longer, infact I'm surprised I didn't pee my pants. C takes one NASTY look at Ben, calls him a butthead and walks out of the room, while Ben and I continue to laugh our monkey tails off! (I'm assured C will need at least 5 years of psychological help for that one alone!)

~Danine