Thursday, August 28, 2008

snakes, snails, puppy dog tails

Life with boys is never dull. Sometimes I wish it was. In The Frontiersman's Daughter I have a young boy named Ransom. I took his name from an obituary of a very old man here in Washington State. Sometimes the old archaic names are the most interesting - in this case it was Ransom Dunbar Clarke. I think my Ransom is a lot like my Paul - never dull!

Yesterday it was raining (yes, again) and Wyatt was out with friends riding bikes. Since Paul has a slight rain allergy he stayed inside with Mom. Mom was trying to write which goes very well with all the bad weather here. But Paul has a penchant for interrupting and so he called me back to Wyatt's room where he had out his microscope. Boys have interesting minds and think in ways girls never do - at least I'd never do this. Since he couldn't find the glass slides he took a baggie and placed his specimen on that under the scope. But the light was burned out so he took a flashlight and positioned it just so on a Hardy Boys book. Voila! The light shone onto his specimen. He was quite proud. The specimen was quite yucky - red and black and weird.

"What is it?" I asked.
He pointed to his leg where something seemed to be missing. "My best scab!" he said.

Fast forward to after supper. Paul likes to take looooooonnnnggg showers. But he never comes out clean. Another boy thing, I guess. I still haven't figured out what he does in there. While he was drying off I heard him call out "Wyatt, come here. I think I have maggots!"

I looked right at Randy. Normally I would jump up and run right in but I don't do worms. Turns out little Paul had lots of little black worms all over his back and arms (all this after a shower!). He was trying to wash them off in the sink and admire them at the same time. Wyatt was trying to decide what kinds of worms they were (there are so many here). Luckily they left the microscope in the closet. After two more showers and three clean towels the worms went away. Randy thinks he picked something up in the woods or from our 2 dogs and 2 cats.

As I said, life with boys is never dull. My friend Ann's son and daughter-in-law just had twin boys. I sure hope they don't read this blog:)

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord ... Psalms 127:3

6 comments:

  1. I guess the saying "Boy will be boys" is true, ha!

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  2. I'm sure you could fill a few posts with Zach stories! I remember a few priceless comments of his and am still chuckling.

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  3. Hi again Laura,
    Another update on "boys will be boys" scenario..........Zach broke his left arm last night outside doing "tricks" with other boys! He ran and jumped off one of those small exercise trampoline's to catch a basketball rim and swing from it and fell backwards landing on his left wrist! I guess they all thought they were monkeys or something! Just one more thing to add to his ongoing list, ha! Will keep you posted. :)

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  4. Me, too. If my daughter-in-law were to read that she'd go on an eliminate all worms from the world crusade before those boys get old enough to bring any home. To the shower!!?? I had two boys. And they were always fun. Since I grew up with two sisters and no brothers, having those boys was an eye-opening adventure for me. But whether you have a son or a daughter, each boy and each girl is a unique and special blessing.

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  5. I'm chuckling about your anit-worm crusade idea as I absolutely hate worms and snakes. As for kids, I think the only thing in the world better than one baby is two. I remember how I felt when I held just one those first few months. I think twins must mean double-joy!! This sounds silly but my make-believe twins in this second book are very dear to my heart. I guess because I get to relive all the little joys of early motherhood all over again through them.
    Bless you, Ann, for checking in!

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  6. Mercy, Rhonda! I'm surprised he didn't break his neck! He is so active I'm also surprised he waited this long to break an arm. You must be worn out today - hope the ER was slow last night and you didn't have a long wait. Keep me posted please and I'll pray for a speedy recovery:)

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