My Wacky Son

cell phone pic

Two evenings ago, Haden plucked a plant exactly like these and said, "This is Poison Ivy"

I said, "Really? Then drop it!  You're allergic to poison ivy!  Don't you remember?"

Him (dropping it), "But I've never had it since living up here, have I?"

Me, "I dunno.  Don't you remember how bad you used to get?!  I don't know if it's possible to not get it if you've always gotten it.  You better go wash up right now just in case."

(That's our Missouri talk coming out, lol)

I swear that this boy cannot look at poison ivy without getting it.  He has been to the ER several times with it covering lots of his body, and in places you'd rather it not be.  One summer he was there 5 times!  I was so ticked at him as I thought he kept purposefully getting in it, lol.  Shots would help and we learned to wash him with Dawn dish soap immediately if we suspected he had been in it.  And the reason he hasn't had it in several years is because he learned what it looked like and avoided it.  So what was he thinking plucking it out of the ground?!

So yesterday he woke up with one swollen/red eye and we had forgotten about the plant and assumed he got bit by a mosquito while sleeping.  Today he woke up with the eyelid worse and some itching on his ear.  Yep, he's still allergic!

PS - I am not allergic.

My Three Sons

Haden Alexander Forrest

Haden is the youngest of my four children and the only one left still at home. He’ll be 17 in April. And, according to him, our life at home is similar to a Family Guy episode. Not one day goes by without him saying, “That reminds me of a Family Guy episode. . .” This was surely my goal in life, no?

(taken with cell phone)

He’s our Guitar Heroes Expert Guitarist and bandleader, I know Dennis and I bring his band down. But he trudges on with us anyway. (We did finally get this song, it just drove him crazy that we got so close our first time playing, and he demanded a photo be taken of the tv.)

He loves being outside no matter what the weather.

He’s the brave one in our crew. Willing to climb tall trees, all the way to the tippy top, or wiggle down a fallen one from a cliff to the beach below (done for a geocache).

He does many things that we don’t understand.

And when I stick a camera in his hands, the photos that come back are of bugs and spiders.

He found this Black Widow for me to photograph and held a twig for it to pose from.

And this nighttime web weaver.

And this scary hairy guy.

And although I will be sad when he moves out, I won’t miss his roommate.

Boys and Bows

You may remember seeing this cake (DQ of course) a few days ago. We had thought we would take Haden camping for his birthday but with the weather we keep having we wussed out. We did however take him to the Archery Range to sight his new bow.

Dennis needed to sight his too. I guess this is when they adjust the little dealybobber to where they can hit the bull’s-eye.

Looks like they need a little more adjusting.

I quickly got bored and went in search of critters.

I found a singing sparrow.

Boring.

But then a tiny frog came hopping by. He stopped long enough to say hello!

And as Haden was doing this, I looked up and. . .

. . . a hawk soared above.

I’m not so sure Haden noticed.

While the ants busily built their home,

Haden practiced on. In fact we left him there, maybe we’ll pick him up next year.

Little Critters and Whatchamacallit

WARNING: Snake photos follow (Aims, hope you read that)

We finally went out geocaching last weekend. We hibernated most of the winter but there was a really nice day (It’s raining and snowing again now!) and we couldn’t resist. We were walking through a marsh when we discovered the little snake I showed you a couple of days ago.

Haden loves any creature and is not afraid of any of them. He has been bringing me all kinds of things for years. One morning, when he was two and woke up before me, he went into the backyard with his older sister. It wasn’t long before he was at my bedside and I was waking up to a scratching noise. He had a tiny mole in a cardboard box and was tipping it towards me to ask what it was.

Another morning he woke me up to tell me (around his pacifier) that a baby kangaroo is a joey (He watches the Discovery Channel). When he was four the whole family went to White Water in Branson and as we were leaving we lost him. We all split up looking for him, in a panic and he had no clue he had even been lost. He was too busy pointing at the ants he was hunched over, watching on the sidewalk.

We have had our share of frogs, snakes, bees, lizards, etc brought into the house in some sort of container. So you would think I would be used to it by now. But still, when the snake was doing things like this:

And this:

His tongue is out, and he looks perturbed pissed! I happily handed the camera over to Dennis.

Even though he was very well contained by my gentle-handed son.

Waiver: No snakes were harmed in the taking of these photos and while said snake slithered happily away when released, I quickly dashed the other way. Thanx for all those crunches guys, I think they helped me run faster.

Now on to more pleasant things. Anyone venture a guess as to what this is?

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