Pictureless Wednesday

Ok, so the title of this post was supposed to be "Signs That a Little Boy Lives at Your House", but I couldn't resist using this title, instead.  Plus, I can reuse this title whenever I don't feel like finding a picture I want! It's reusable and recyclable.  I'm SO green, people.  So green.

Signs that a little boy lives at your house:

• black Sharpie marks on your mattress
• action figures at Hot Wheels in the flower beds
• red clay dust on the carpet, tracked in from baseball cleats worn in the house
• a trail of dirty little socks all throughout the house
• crumbs on the kitchen table
• crumbs under the kitchen table
• crumbs between his sheets along with a two week old bread crust
• a varied assortment of Lego airplanes and spaceships in differing states of disrepair throughout the living room
• a brand new T-shirt cut from the neckline half way down the chest
• a...wait! What?!

Um, yeah.  My son will do anything for a laugh.  He's shy with adults, but is constantly trying to make other kids laugh with his goofy antics.  (I have no idea who he gets those personality traits from!) Today is a perfect example.  Thankfully for us, when he gets in trouble at school, or does something he knows he shouldn't have, he tells us about it.  It was his guilty conscience that caused him to show us his shirt right after school.

"Umm...I kind of got a little hot at school, so I...ummmm....got my scissors and did this", he told us, pointing out the straight slit that went about 6 inches down the front of his shirt.

"You cut your SHIRT?!", I screeched said incredulously, as my husband calmly started counting to ten.

It turns out that he was trying to make his friends laugh, while the substitute teacher wasn't looking.  Nice.  My kid is that kid.  The one who does daring, but dumb things to earn the respect and laughter of his first grade peers.  Great. 

The teacher never noticed apparently, and we established that he never would have even tried this had his real teacher been there.  Once every couple of weeks he gets his clip moved to yellow for some nit picky thing like asking to go to the bathroom 20 minutes after the whole class has gone, or giggling during center time, so I can just imagine that his teacher would have had a coronary had she seen this.

(Sigh.) He will be paying for the new shirt (that we just bought last night!) with his allowance, and we had a talk about showing respect for things and people, and the value of a dollar, and pretty much any other parently lesson we could think to impart in between more pauses for my husband to mentally count to ten and take deep breaths..

Other signs a little boy lives at your house:

• little feet pitterpattering down the stairs for a second drink of water at bedtime
• a second round of sticky kisses goodnight, gentle hugs, and "I love you Mom"'s
• stick people drawings of Mommy and Daddy kissing surrounded by Star Wars tie fighters
• a sincere little voice who says upon hearing thunder at bedtime "If you feel somebody climbing in bed between you two tonight, that'll just be me."
• your house is filled with infectious, mischievous giggles, that make Daddy stop counting and start laughing along

Do you have a little boy at your house? What are some of the good, and not so good signs?