Little Boys

Since we have moved to Michigan, our whole family has made a friends with another family, The Johnsons. Our kids love getting together with the Johnsons and have asked since the second week we moved here when the next time will be that we see them (we see them at least once a week). Being so far away from aunts and uncles and cousins, the Johnsons have helped us fill that void, and they literally feel like family to us. We really love them!

Perhaps the most interesting friendship that has developed

is that friendship between Jacob and Griffin (or Fiffen as Jacob used to call him). Those two have always had such a fun time together. By themselves, they are two normal boys, but when they get together, there can be some significant trouble. For example, when they were really about 2, we would have to listen very carefully when they went upstairs. They loved to fill up my tub with water, put their hand in front of the spigot so water would spray all over the bathroom, and then climb in, shoes, clothes and all. This, fortunately, was good clean fun. We had a lot of dirty fun too.

For example, one time, Griffin and Jacob took a permanent magic marker to my bathroom, and they inevitably would make a mess with toys (this I can't blame entirely on them, their older siblings played and still play a very large part in these messes). Perhaps the most memorable mess was on Alden's birthday last year when they took three full bottles of maple syrup and squirted them all over my kitchen. This momma was not a happy camper. I called Michael in hysterics. He came home and didn't know if he should comfort me or Griffin, both of us were still crying from the incident (Griffin was crying because I was screaming so loudly, and I was crying because it took me three times of scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees to get rid of the stick). Alisha and I hoped that the boys were approaching maturity from these messes, but as a Valentine's Day treat for the Johnson family, Jacob and Griffin drew all over nearly every level of their house. Interestingly, the basement was a map complete with hieroglyphics and arrows showing one where to go. Griffin's drawings were certainly more complex than Jacob's, but both made quite a mess on their walls. Alisha and I scrubbed for quite sometime, and in the end, she and Ryan painted their basement (I felt really bad about that).

Nonetheless, I thought all of this was bad. I thought

Jacob might be my toughest boy. After all, for my 38th birthday, Jacob ran into the wall and cut his head open so badly that he had to have stitches, and literally, 31 days later, he ran into our couch and should have probably had another set of stitches above his eyebrow (they glued it instead). Together with Griffin, I thought no little boy could be more crazy. However, after reading previous posts of when Hyrum was little, I remembered that little

Jacob, even coupled with Griffin, is no match for our little Hyrum. Although Hyrum can still be a handful at times, he is nothing like he used to be. I laughed and laughed as I read about him hauling buckets of water out of the tub to ruin our kitchen ceiling (now it's funny), I chuckled when he made a "storm" in the basement from cooking something way too long in the microwave downstairs, and I couldn't imagine how we paid for all the cereal he dumped in various parts of the house when he was little. I remembered how every day, Hyrum made extreme messes and taught me the importance of responding to his requests immediately!

Today I was reminded of all that when he was making himself a quesadia. He wanted to make it himself, so with a big porcelain plate, he carefully climbed upon to the kitchen

counter top, went from a crouching position to a standing one, balanced carefully over the microwave, and then put his plate in.  When it was finished, he took his hot plate out and was about to complete the whole process in reverse. To save him from death, I took the plate from him so that he could jump down, and I then cut up his dinner. He asked if I would cook him a piece of toast, which I did. About three minutes later, he said urgently, "MOM!!! My toast!!! It's burning! Come quick!" I jumped up from eating my oatmeal (Michael wasn't home for dinner tonight, so our dinner was shall we say hodge podge) and ran over to the toaster oven. When I got there, Hyrum lamented, "You're killing me, Mom!!!" That boy! For some reason, that whole interchange reminded me of my post when Hyrum fell from the football stadium seats and how for a brief minute I thought I lost my mischievous yet remarkable blessing from God. I truly feel so grateful for him. Though he may lose his temper from time to time (he's too much like his momma) and be irritably independent and stubborn, I wouldn't trade him for anything. I love him with all my heart and will be sure to thank God tonight for blessing me with him and his special brothers. What a blessing it is to have these four wonderful boys!