A Morning with S4, Part Two

For breakfast we made chocolate chip pancakes. By we I mean I had two shadows, S3 and S4, who were determined to be the first to stir, the first to flip, the first to eat. I first drank a cup of coffee.

Husband was out to breakfast with a buddy so it was just the five of us. We just got our first snow of the year and it's measurable snow (well, technically we had a dusting the day after thanksgiving that was gone with the sunshine). We have about four inches, if you really stretch the ruler down into the grass. Just a bit north of us, where AD lives they were dumped with well over a foot of snow from the same lake effect snow storm. Anyhow, the boys were discussing going sledding as we ate our pancakes.

Just on a whim I looked to S4 and said “Hey, did you ever go sledding when you were a little kid?”

He chewed his pancake slowly as he began to sit higher in his chair until he was on his knees so he was as tall as any of us and with a swallow declared loudly “Yes, I did.”

“Really?” he had all our attentions now. “What happened?”

“Well,” he began, “When I was a little kid I went sledding out there (he points out the window) because I lived here, you know. And I went sledding for a little bit and then I got a Christmas tree all by myself.”

“Really?” S1 asked excitedly.

“Yah,” he answered as if to say 'duh!'. “You remember the tree because you were there too.”

“I was?” S1 asked.

“Yah, you rode the horses to pull the tree and you shot a deer while you were on the horse.”

“Cool!” S1 agreed.

“So you cut the tree down all by yourself?” I asked him.

“No, I was just a little kid. I was only five. S3 was three then.”

S1 began to snicker. “He just swapped ages with S3!”

“Yah, I was five,” continued S4, “And when I was done being five I turned, um...” He began counting quietly, one, two, three, four, five, six.... “I turned six. And then S3 was five!”

“So what did you do with the tree?” S2 asked.

“I decorated it all by myself,” S4 answered. “And then I opened all the Christmas prizes by myself cuz they were all for me. I had a Mater and Lightening McQueen and Doc and Mac and real road.” He sat down and speared another piece of pancake. “But that was when I was a little kid.”

"When I Was a Little Kid"

S4 began this story – or bunch of stories – this summer. I have thought to not write them out to you but was encouraged to do so the other night so here it is.....

One night when we were eating dinner, S4 began telling us a story about when he was a little kid. I don't recall how this all even began but it went something like this...

“When I was a little kid, my other Dad and Mom........” and he would tell this elaborate story with all sorts of details.

Here is why I didn't want to share this story...he would end it with “But then they threw me in the fire so now I live with you.”

How awful does that sound? Why would he say such a thing?

Now he doesn't end them that way, thank goodness. But I have found the other boys begging for his stories but I think I ask for them the most. It is such fun to hear his imagination! The stories usually happen when we are cuddled together, as in, Moma needs a nap will you cuddle next to me and tell me about when you were little? And then he will snuggle up next to me, tell me the story, tell me he will tell me another he just has to think of it and then he will fall asleep.

This week with my fuzzy head cold I got a chance to hear a new story so here it is for you...
“When I was a little kid, a long time ago, I went hunting. I shot a bear and a racoon and I made the racoon into a hat and then I shot a deer just because I seen one and could. Yup, I was a good hunter when I was a little kid.”

When he gets some new stories, I'll try to remember to post them.