Hazardous Hyrum

I must say that I think that Hyrum is the cutest thing in the world. His little smile really lights up my whole world. When he smiles he crinkles up nose and sometimes blows air in and out of it. It's so dang cute and heartwarming. He has a deep dimple in his left cheek that makes his smile even more captivating. He also loves to snuggle and loves to give kisses. He often says, "Kisses," and then attacks his victims with an open mouth. I love those mushy kisses. He is a boy through and through and loves balls (no surprise with Michael as his dad and Alden & Thobe as his brothers) and is impossible to keep clean. I think his dirty face and soiled shirt make him even more endearing. He's absolutely adorable.




Despite is sweetness and cuteness, he horrifies me. He climbs up anything he can. When he reaches his destination, he either makes a mess--one day he poured out two entire boxes of cereal onto the table, or he tries to climb higher. The other day I heard him screaming and came down to find him on top of computer desk with his foot stuck in the scanner of our printer because he was trying to climb it. He is constantly shaking hands with danger whether he's standing on the edge of the top of the stairs or on the edge of the table. He is absolutely a monkey--I called him a monkey the other day (I actually call him a monkey at least 20 times a day), and Thobe said, "Hyrum is a bad monkey, huh Mom?" He actually is just a curious little monkey. Unfortunately, his curiousness has caused my heart to stop beating on several occasions the past few days. Lately I have been trying to get my yard into shape. Hyrum's favorite place in the entire world is to be outside. I usually just work wherever he plays, and we're good to go, and GO Hyrum does. One day, I looked up just in time to see his little feet disappear under our neighbor's garage (our neighbors keep their garage open about 3 inches so their cat can come and go as he pleases--Hyrum can fit through there, but I don't even think Thobe can). Fortunately, I was able to quickly lure him out of there, but... HE'S A MONKEY! The next day Michael was mowing the lawn, and I was pulling weeds. The boys were playing in the backyard. Suddenly Alden came running to where I was and yelled, "Mom, Hyrum is heading straight for the water." Our neighbors, several houses down, have a lake in their backyard. It seemed fairly far away to me when we first moved in, but Hyrum can make it over there in a few seconds flat. I dropped everything and dashed over to the lake. It looked as though something had fallen into the water not too far from shore because of the ripple of the water. The water was murky, so I couldn't tell if it was Hyrum, but I didn't know. I was just getting ready to dive in when Michael stopped the lawn mower and said that Hyrum had gone into the forest. Talk about a heart stopper. If this was the worst thing that happened, I wouldn't feel too terrible, but two days ago, a man rang on my doorbell and asked me if I had a little guy. My heart again began to pound, especially when I saw his vehicle parked at a bit of an angle as though he had just slammed on his breaks. He told me that Hyrum had been playing with balls in the street--IN THE STREET! First of all, I had no idea that he was even outside, let alone playing in the street. The man told me that Hyrum was now out back. I quickly thanked the man and sprinted to the backyard. I didn't see him anywhere and was terrified that he'd gone over to the lake. I screamed his name, and the man came around the house again and showed me that Hyrum was contently playing with our bird feeder on our deck (he likes to pull the seeds out of it and eat them or throw them or mostly regularly, dump them). I took him in the house and was only slightly annoyed when he poured out another box of cereal onto the entry way floor. That night I didn't want to put him in his crib. I just wanted to hold him close to me as I thanked my Heavenly Father for protecting my baby that day. As a mother, I am so grateful for the hand of the Lord and am convinced that God has sent his angels on numerous occasions to protect these precious souls that he has entrusted to me. It is my prayer that I can do a better job to keep my precious boys safe and teach them the things that they need to know to be happy.