I have known for sometime now that all of children are smarter than I am. They never accepted the first "easy" answer when I tried to answer their endless questions. What is the correct answer to a continual "WHY" anyway? The official Mom answer is, of course, "Because I said so!". Given the mother they have, my children will always be more inquisitive than most and more stubborn. Easy answers never changed the world. They are taught to be stubborn and push the limits within reason.
All of this to say, my baby boy will turn 15 years old tomorrow. So many last times with him... last package of diapers we had to buy, last first day of kindergarten, last little league game. He is our last child, and I contend, our best. I like to say that I practiced on the first three and finally got it right on my fourth and final child. Also, that he is my reward from God for having to raise the first three. He knows that I think that he is special (actually, I try to emphasize to all of my children that they are special to me). As he has grown and progressed through his early teen years I have seen a young man develop that surprises even me (and remember my expectations for my children are huge). So...you get the idea....I like him, I think that he is cool.
My favorite story to tell about Harrison is about laundry. Being the youngest, he has always tried to keep up with the older three. He wanted to be thought of as just as big, just as helpful, just as noticed for his accomplishments as they were. In our house as each of the kids grew older they would get more responsibilities and more chores to do in order to help out around the house. Folding towels, unloading the dishwasher, sweeping the garage....there was a chore for every age. The chore would progress in difficulty as the child grew older and more capable.
As you can imagine, with six people in the family, laundry was a particularly large chore. I never minded laundry much (dusting is my demon) so it wasn't until Harrison was about four years old that I had all four of the children help put their own clothes away after I had laundered and folded them. Each grumbled as they would scoop up their clean clothing and slink off to their room to put it away. Harrison had to be told several times that his laundry was waiting and that he needed to retrieve it unless he wanted to attend school naked the next day. He stomped into the room where I was and told me that he didn't want to put his laundry away. Which launched me into an oration about what he wanted to do at that time had no place in my universe, but what he needed to do was...put away his laundry. He just stood there with his arms crossed and a determined look on his little face fully prepared for the battle that was inevitable. Having never seen that look on his face before, I quickly used my super human Mom skills to formulate a plan. I am no psych major but I like to think that I can get a small child to do something without using brute force. Remembering that he had used the phrase "I'm a Big Boy now" recently, I thought that guilt was the way to go. I squatted down to his level, looked him straight in the eyes and said, "I understand that you may not want to grow up and do big boy chores like your older siblings. But big boys do chores to help their mommies." I noticed that I had his full attention, so I went in for the kill. "So, you will not have to put your laundry away this time if you say, 'I'm your Baby and I will always be your Baby.'" I thought that I had him right where I wanted him. My Mom skills were far too well-honed for a mere 4 year old to get the best of me. However, without skipping a beat, my beautiful little boy smiled broadly and quickly said with pride, "I AM YOUR BABY, AND I WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR BABY!" ....and skipped away to play GI Joes with his brother.
Happy Birthday baby boy...you will always be my baby.
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