Thursday, October 03, 2013

Learning the Ropes


"You missed a spot here, Mom."

Hal has moved up in the Janitorial Ranks around here from Master Floor Sweeper (he does a better job than my kitchen broom) to Chief Dishwasher Inspector. He even tries to help out by making sure all dishes in his jurisdiction have been licked clean- I have such helpful sons!

Speaking of sons... PC got lost in the barnyard before school this morning (he was 'checking on the chickens'). He almost got left behind and all he had to say for himself was, "I forgot it was a school day!" This was slightly alarming as yesterday he almost missed breakfast before school. Instead, he barely made it back from the barn with enough time to wolf down his waffles before it was time to go. He's been banned from the barnyard before school for a while now...

And Butler learned today, that when gathering eggs, one must not 'clink' them together on one's way back to the house, regardless of how exciting it is to be the egg-finder of the day. Some chickens lay more fragile-shelled eggs than others and some eggs will not survive 'clinking'. I'm not sure if anyone will break his 13 broken eggs record anytime soon! :)


Telling me all about it!


Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Butler's Other Life

So, we were having breakfast this morning after Sir and the big kids left, and Butler started this rambling narrative without even pausing for my interaction. I did interrupt him a couple of times to clear up a point I didn't understand or to establish that maybe he was telling me about a dream he had (which he firmly denied because "dreams aren't real, and this weally did happen!"). After the first two sentences or so, I knew I needed to grab my pencil and paper and do some serious short hand. This is what I got:

"Mommy, once upon a time, a cougar catched me. When I was in a tree." (I interrupted him here to ask what the cougar did with him when it caught him.) He continued, "Actually, it was a nice cougar. I was falling down and it catched me. I was hanging in a tree - like a monkey! I did NOT climb the tree" (I wanted to ask him how he got into the tree at this point, but he was already moving on). "It was when I was a little boy. When I didn't have a daddy and mommy or kids. I just had a friend. I mean, I had another brother." (I had to ask about this other brother - "What was your brother's name?") "His name was John, I think. Maybe it was Shiloh... or something." Then as if he remembered something really important, he exclaimed, "EVEN - it was when we could drive a Ye-Haul truck or a car- I mean a truck! When I got catched by a cougar. And then we played soccer-ball. And then, we came in the house and eat." Then he finished his last bite of cereal, asked me if he looked messy, cleared his place and went off to wash his hands and face.

He's always been my Lions, and Tigers, and Sharks, and Whales and Collapsing bridges, tall tales boy, but now it looks like Cougars have joined the ranks. I love it!