David, David

My David - goofball, Mr. Sensitive, and so, so different from his brothers...or anyone else in the universe...

Recently, hearing an ad for the stage version of Mary Poppins that is coming to town: "Mom, is Mary Poppins dead?" I suppose it's a legitimate question for someone not all that familiar with the stories. However, I found myself dumbfounded for a moment because I am very, very familiar with Miss Poppins, having read her stories over and over again as a child.

Yesterday, while trying to help him with science: A definition was given and he needed to fill in the blank. The answer was "clouds." All he had to do was go back through his reading, find the terminology, and it would be obvious. He kept getting it wrong. So, I'd read the definition given, and then I'd flip back to where the answer was in the book and read what the page said, waiting for him to see that it said right there, in black and white, "clouds"! We must have done this four times and he still didn't get it, guessing everything from "water" to "vapor." I was about beating my head on the desk at this point. I finally put my finger underneath the word "clouds" right by the definition and David finally said, "Oh, clouds!" And then he says, "Well, I was going to say that before, but you didn't' give me a chance!" I said, "How did I not give you chance?" "Well, I was thinking it but I just didn't say it out loud." "Why didn't you say it out loud?" "Well, you kept saying, 'no, no, no'" to all my other answers so I figured you'd just say "no" to clouds, too."

Am I allowed to drive a stake through my eyeball now?

Today this industrious boy has been busy making a scratching post for the kitties. It's cockeyed, but he put so much of himself in it. He's just waiting for Paul to get home so he can put the carpet on it. He has run in periodically to give me updates on how many nails he pounded in and how he was concerned about it being "level."

Now, said boy has run upstairs and changed into his Iowa Hawkeye jersey and delightedly discovered that the Iowa Hawkeye vs Iowa State Cyclones game is being televised. He's running around the house squealing, "Go Hawkeyes!" If he wakes up sleeping Sam, I'm going to have his head...

David, David...the baby who brought the laughter back to our house and is still cracking me up, 11 years later...