Soapbox

So I’ve got this kid… and you know you have to be careful when you take ’em out to someone else’s house, especially at this age (2). Ok, you have to be careful with everything at this age. But this kid is pretty well behaved mostly, and very cute and precocious, so we like to show him off. All I have to say is, thank heavens we were visiting family.

We were at my brother Andrew’s house and hurricane Stephen went through. First he pulled a bookcase over on his head, causing no serious damage to his head but plenty of mess in the room. He then proceeded to knock over a table and smash the glass vases that Kelly had saved from the tables at their wedding reception. Oh gosh, I’m so sorry about that, heh heh… gee, he’s usually not into stuff this way, sorry…Then after all that, I went and let him out of my sight. Stupid, I know.

We found him up in his little cousin’s room, looking frantic. He had opened the flush valve on the radiator and was desperately (and unsuccessfully) trying to turn it off again.

“I wondered what this was Mommy, and this little knob looked like it was to turn, so…”

After mopping up the bedroom floor, we had to go downstairs where my brother removed acoustic tiles from the living room ceiling and ran a hair dryer on the wallpaper! And of course, none of it was malicious mischief: he wasn’t being bad, just bouncy and curious. Try telling that to an armful of wet ceiling tiles.

The only thing that keeps me from being too embarrassed to even look my brother in the eye is knowing that his own little darling will be two in a few months. I told Kelly that I refuse to visit them again until they come to our house and Gracie breaks at least one thing!