How a Middle Child Gets Attention

The stories and adventures of a middle child who loves his Momma and snuggles but always has the mischievous glimmer of curiosity in his big brown eyes.

The Great Escape

One day while we were still living with my parents in Las Vegas, Weston got in trouble and had to be put in time out. I put him on his bed and went next door to my room. I was on the computer when I noticed some movement outside from the corner of my eye. I looked up just in time to see Weston run by. "How did he get out there? I didn't ever hear his door open," I thought. And although it still doesn't make sense to me, I've started to have some insight into the workings of the boy's brain and I had a scary thought. I ran to his room to confirm, and sure enough found scissors on Weston's bed and a hole cut in the screen on his window, no, my parents' window. The boy had actually cut a hole in the window to escape time out and almost more disturbing, I knew that he had done it before seeing it. When I asked him why he told me he just wanted to go outside. Oh well yeah, of course that would be the obvious way out! The boy has apparently read too many comics and watched Chicken Run one too many times. Boys are a unique and curious breed, are they not? So, Weston had to confess his sins to Pop when he got home and I told him that if he wanted to be outside so bad he could spend service hours outside pulling weeds to cover the cost of the screen replacement. So Jamie learned to replace a screen (which is apparently cheap and easy, so if you too have an escape artist in your family you know who to call) and some much-needed weeding was taken care of. Not all is lost, good was done here. And me, well maybe I should start reading those comics and spy stuff with Weston so I can get some lessons on how to thwart the enemy's destructive actions.

Our Friendly Local Fire Department

You may remember awhile back when I posted some pics from our fire station visit. After getting home from the visit I read some books to the kids about firefighters. One of the books was a simple board book that had a pig pretending to be a firefighter and was rescuing his stuffed bear from a tree and at the end the firefighters came to spray down him and his friends on a hot day. Knowing my child, I quickly jumped into a discussion of emergency and non-emergency, asking if that was a good reason to call 911. And we talked about what an emergency is and what the firefighters were for. The next week I'm in the kitchen and somewhere in the house I can hear a womans' voice, "911, How can we help you?" Not knowing which phone and which sinner was the source of the call, I quickly grab the kitchen phone and quickly apologize for the mistaken call and tell her we are fine. She tells me they still need to send the police out to check and I again apologize. Then I hang up and marched through the house to find the guilty party. Weston emerges looking guilty as sin and I beg to know why he would make that call. Fidgeting and not daring to make eye contact, he explains, "My toy got stuck in the tree, so I called the firemen to get it out for me." (by the way, let me mention that this tree is only 5 ft tall). So then we talked about what warrants an emergency and that he needs to talk to mom first (unless mom's unconscious, then please call) and then mom will decide if a call is needed. Then the police come to the door and I try to explain what happened but they look unamused and try to come across as a responsible parent that takes the situation seriously.