Soldier Boy

It was a sad day for GI Joe. I'd like to make it perfectly understood that the Sexton family supports our troops. On Bella's behalf, we don't think she was trying to make a political statement. We'd like to believe she was just preparing this particular "Joe" for future training with the Navy Seals. Fortunately, we were able to rescue him from potential death by flushing. We were also grateful that she chose OUR bathroom and not the children's bathroom. It's a scary place. The bacteria alone would have done him in. He received a sanitizing shower and was taken back to barracks to dry out.

In other news... my mom license was almost revoked today by my eight year old son. Nathan is going to be a great daddy some day. He seems quite sure that he is a better mom than me. Bella was playing with spoons and bowls this afternoon so I dropped a hand full of river rocks into her bowl to give her something to stir around. I thought it was good for her imagination. Nathan was horrified.

"Mom! Rocks?! Are you watching her?"

Yes. I was watching her. Then just as he walked by she ventured to put a rock in her mouth. I barely had a chance to call her down before he screamed, "MOOOM!" Then he stands there staring at me with this do something look on his face. "Dude, calm down. I got this. Really, I do."

He goes off to his room and Bella follows shortly behind him. Did I realize that she'd carried a rock with her? Admittedly, no. But I found out soon enough. Within seconds he rushes back into the living room with the offending stone in his hand, palm extended so there's no question as to the evidence against me. "Mama" he says in a tone that implies he would be calling me by my full name just then if he knew me by anything other than mama. "I just pulled this rock out of Bella's mouth and it could have been stuck there." The boy is dead serious and I hold back laughter while assuming the appropriate posture of a scolded child.

"Maybe we should put the rocks back in my room, huh?" I offered to make amends for my shortsightedness.

"uh, yeah. (insert unspoken duh)" Then he walks by me and glares at me while shaking his head sadly. I chuckle to myself and he gives me a hug on the way back by. He accepts me as the disgrace to motherhood that I am. What a kid! =)

The whole situation left me wondering two things: 1) Doesn't he realize what a waste it is to use up all his disappointment in me before the teenage years? and 2) How does he think he survived these past eight years without another Nathanite to keep me on the straight and narrow path of good parenting? Maybe he thinks I'm slipping in my old age.