Before I forget...

I need to write down more of Hayden's recent antics...

- Just before Halloween he heard a little girl say that she wanted to be a princess. He was quiet for a few minutes and then told me...in a disgusted voice..."I don't want to be a princess! I want to be a bad man with a sword."

Lovely. What are we raising?

We bought him a Darth Vadar costume for Halloween and he occassionally brings it out to wear. Yesterday was one of those days. He came into our room during the wee morning hours and wanted to dress up in his Darth Vadar costume. I took him with me (all dressed up) when I went to Home Depot for an errand. Darth Vadar decided that he wanted to run away from him mother, and I ended up taking off my clomper shoes and coat so I could crawl under the section of lights to haul him out of there. And that's after chasing him down several isles, with him calling out to me, "You can't catch me." All this is done with a twinkle in his deep brown eyes.

So, he learned that there are consequences for running away.

He's such a tease to his sisters...even making them cry once in a while. UGH.

But then there's the sensitive side of him.

Sometimes when I've cried, he'll come up to me and ask me if he can "wipe my eyes." He'll reach up with his chubby little hands and "try" to wipe them away.

Yesterday afternoon I heard the glider in Connor's room creaking and knew it had to be Hayden. I peeked around the corner to see him sitting there reading the book "You Are Special."

He noticed me watching him and asked, pointing to the picture of a sad Punchinello kicking a can..."What's he doing, Mom?"

"He's kicking a can."

Hayden: "Why? Nobody will play with him? Why?"

He had such a concerned and confused look on his face...and it gave me hope that my little Darth Vadar will turn out to be a sensitive, kind man...even though he's so into guns and light sabers and teasing his sisters.

Here's a few other highlights from our eldest son:

- Hayden came running upstairs and came and put his head down on my lap. Suddenly he popped his head up and said "Mom, feel my heart, it's bumping!"

- At the end of dinner one night, as we turned out backs to load the dishwasher, he decided to make chocolate milk. He took the small amount of chocolate milk left in his cup and proceeded to pour it into a brand new gallon of white milk. I thought about it later and realized that in his mind he had it all figured out how he was going to make more!

- Last week while making dinner I sliced some cheese and turned to put them on the slices of bread and a few seconds later I heard, "Oh, this is nummy!" I then saw four big bite marks out of the hunk of cheese.

- Another night while making dinner (salmon), Hayden asked me "Do the fish swim?" Yep I said. Then with a scrunched look on his face he asked, "Do they turn to food?" He was grossed out and would not touch the salmon!

- For Christmas he received some little fighting men figurines. The other morning he held some out to me and said "Fight me Mom!" Hmmm...if a stranger were listening to this conversation, I wonder how it would sound to them?

- We went swimming with the girls one day and he accidentally climbed over a wall which he wasn't supposed to. The lifeguard blew the whistle at him and once Hayden realized he wasn't supposed to be there, he quickly moved away. A short while later a different lifeguard whistled at another child and I happened to be watching Hayden, and saw him quietly stick his toungue out at this lifeguard. I laughed...but I see issues brewing.

- "Watch me die, Mom!" I looked over to see him throw a toy at himself and then he proceeded to fall down, as if he were dead.

- One day I was on the phone with my brother and while I was talking with him, I was also watching Hayden and his friend play. I stopped my conversation at one point to ask Hayden to share a toy and when I returned to the phone, my brother pointed out that the conversation from his end of the phone sounded interesting....Hmmmm..."What did I say?" I asked my brother. He started laughing and told me...

I had asked Hayden to "Please give his friend a gun."

And this is from a girl who does not like guns.

And today, he looked at me and asked, "Will you snuggle wif me mom?" Who could say no to that?

I write these things down because I want to remember them. He's a boy who has brought a lot of joy to us...and frustration at times...but he's a gentle boy who also has a lot of spitfire in him. And those big, brown eyes...they get me EVERY time.


- Hayden...in his younger days