Soakin' It All In

I don't seem to share as much about Alex as I do my girls. Ella is just in that fun stage of discovery and Anna, is well, Anna (so much to say about that child, I try to hold back). But Alex is pretty easy going and keeps to himself (assuming his sister leaves him alone).

So I thought I would celebrate this fine Friday with a funny Alex story from way back when.

Alex is more like 4 here, but it is all I had readily available.

I was still pregnant with Anna so that would have made Alex right around 2 (+ a month or two) years old. It was a gorgeous late-spring day. I was cooking in the kitchen and Pete was out in the back yard working on an old truck we had. I can't remember what he was doing exactly but I remember it was supposed to be something routine, changing/replacing some nut/bolt/thingie.

Alex was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to speech development. He had a very limited English vocabulary (but spoke fluent Giberish) up until 2. From age 2-3 he went from speaking a handful of words to full on paragraphs and endless hours of stories. But on this particular day, we were still at the handful end of the spectrum.

Alex had been playing with those big Legos at the table near me while I prepared a few extra meals for when the new baby came. At some point he slipped away and went downstairs to see what his dad was up to. I could see them from out the window and checked on them both from time to time.

I guess maybe 30 mins—an hour went by and Alex made his way back up to see me, still with Legos in hand. He regained his place at the table and began examining his two Lego contraptions. Then he began to pound one of the parts with the other part in his hand and clear as a bell, chimed out,

"F_ck it. F_ck it. F_ck it."

I seriously almost peed my pants. To keep Alex from seeing me bust out laughing, I turned to look out the window. There was Pete, red faced, clearly frustrated, smeared in black with various truck parts scattered about. It certainly didn't take a genius to figure out where Alex had discovered this new phrase.

Luckily, I played it as cool as I could and this did not become part of his limited vocabulary. One of my favorite stories, absolutely, but to my knowledge this scene did not get re-enacted at daycare. It actually took years of driving in the car with two less than perfectly rationale parents for my kids to develop their colorful words and even then, they know better than to use them liberally.

Hope you enjoyed my tale and you have a great weekend.

Happy Friday!