A Boy and his quest.....

Max....he's such an interesting, funny, odd, quirky little boy.  He's most comfortable playing with Maggie and her friends.  He prefers his family to anyone else. He enjoys playing "mom and dad" which is Maggie and her friends version of playing house. He is sensitive and sweet and will often stop to tell me that he loves me. His feelings get genuinely hurt when Mayzie won't let him hold her. He's sure she hates him and he is crushed.  And yet, he's rough and spastic and crazy and loves to bounce balls, and ride his bike, scooter, jump on his pogo stick or do anything he can outside.

Yesterday, as I was in the middle of a voice lesson, he came racing in looking for a plastic cup. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to look for worms. I again asked why, and he said, he just really wanted to have some worms.  I asked where he was getting them and he said he was going to Mr. Lentz's house, who is a neighbor 3 houses down.  Apparently he fishes a lot or, he just happens to have a durth of earth worms. I don't know.  My kids are far better acquainted with all the neighbors than I am, that's for sure(which is easy to do when you're awesome like me and just your kids roam free).  Anyway, I got him a cup and he was excitedly on his way.

Just a few short minutes later he appeared back in the kitchen and he was very sad, crying in fact.  I asked him if Mr. Lentz didn't have any worms. And then, he came and stood right next to me and buried his head in my chest and just sobbed.  When I asked why he was SO sad, he said that Mr. Lentz DID have worms, but that he told Max he would have to pick them up if he wanted them.

Ummm, hello?  Max buddy, what did you THINK was going to be the case here?  

I said "Max, why did you want worms if you don't want to touch them?"
"He said I had to pick them up, and I didn't WANT to touch them." SOBBBBB!!

There was no consoling this child.  Long and the short of it is, he apparently just wanted to have worms in a cup, that he thought would magically get in there without him touching.

It took some doing, but I finally got him to stop waling next to me so I could finish my lesson, but he moved to the family room and seriously sobbed for a good 40 minutes over the injustice of not getting any worms. Finally, Jere came home and had a chat with him. He promised Max that he would come home from work today and help him dig for worms, in our barren, dry wasteland of a yard. It was just what Max needed to assauge his saddened heart.

Cut to today, the moment he got home from school he started asking if it was time for Daddy to come home.  The time could not come soon enough.

At last, Daddy was home....the digging could commence.  The comedy here being, well, not the least of which was the aforementioned wasteland of dry dirt, but the fact that we do not own even ONE semblence of a proper digging apparatus.  Never you fear, we are improvisers if nothing else, and nothing was gonna stop their quest.  So, they set to digging with a pie server and a spoon.  But you know what....it was perfect. It was adorable and Max was floating on cloud nine because HE got to spend time with his Daddy (this is a very rare thing) and they were looking for those magical, non touchable worms.

 This picture was taken before he knew I was taking pictures. Note how intently he was digging.

Look closely to see his pie server/shovel. And also, our super awesome dirt patch otherwise known as our yard.

You're probably surprised to learn that they found none.  But, that didn't dampen his spirits. He went to bed happy in the assurance that they could look again tomorrow, only this time, they'd go to Mr. Lentz's.

This kid......he just makes me laugh.


Earth worms and crocodile tears,

Allyson