Thoughts of a Mother Going Insane!

Calum is not your ordinary boy, many, many, MANY people have told us this!  I often wonder what is going through his mind!  Whenever I tell him something I am sure he asks "what" at least 10 times before he understands what I am telling him, like for instance the other day Myrna, Calum and I were walking across the yard and I saw that the tractor was stopped in the field where Jared was seeding grass, I said "I wonder if daddy is broken down?"  Calum answered with, "What momma?"  When I said it again, the exact same way, he again asked "What momma?"  So I changed my original question to "I think daddy's tractor is broken."  Calum's response, "What you say momma?"  This continued on until we got to the front door of Myrna's house.  Finally when you think there is no hope in making him understand he says, "Daddy's tractor is broken?"  A book truly could be written about him, he is just so darn cute and there really is never a dull moment with him.  The way he talks, how he pronounces words, his little mischievous smile...!  He goes through spurts of being totally obsessed with something, for a while it was anything Buzz and Woody, then it was Lightning McQueen and Mater (or how he says it Likening and Mamer), now it is Transformers!  Every time we drive by a new chevy camaro Calum says transmormer car, or beeta bug (for Bumblebee), actually he says that about almost any car that has a fancy spoiler on the back or any newer looking car!

The other interesting thing that drives me insane with this little boy is his lack of fear!  This past monday Dave and Char and the kids came out to help get some stuff done around the farm. Jared and I had already house wrapped the exposed part of Myrna's house but it needed to be taped and a little more house wrap had to be put on at the peak, we also stacked all the shingles on the roof so it would be ready when the roofer came out to finish putting the new shingles on the west side of the house.  Myrna kept care of the kids for us when we did this because we knew Calum would be on the roof right beside us if he had the chance!  Like monday for instance!  Dave and Char had gone up onto the roof to take a few of the Christmas light clips off the eaves when Dave needed to go inside to get something, as soon as he got inside he remembered that Calum was outside playing, as soon as he got back out sure enough Calum was not just on the ladder but right on top of the roof!  Char was on the opposite side of the house over the garage when she heard this little voice say "whatcha doing?"  At first she started to run toward him but when she realized this just made him run too she slowed her pace to a very fast walk and as soon as she was close enough she grabbed him and held him tight until Dave got back up.  Char tried to hand Calum down to Dave on the ladder but every time she got him close to the ladder he would lift his little legs up, so Dave took Calum and put him under his arm like he was a football and climbed down the ladder!  Calum was not too happy about this!  Usually we have locks on our doors to keep people out, well we have a special latch at the top of the door (David rigged this up when we discovered Emry would sleep walk and they found her outside one night telling Martin to be quiet!) to keep people in, especially Calum!!

When the cows were still in the corrals this past spring, when Jared was still feeding them, we had a steer that notoriously got out!  We eventually just left him alone because when Jared would feed a new bale this steer always found his way to the gate to be let in!  Anyway, this steer was getting quite big because of all the new spring grass he was eating and the piles of barley he would find around the bins, he was also getting a little too comfortable around us because we left him alone so he knew we weren't much of a threat to him, until he met Calum!!  When Jared and Dave were out working in the yard Calum was tagging along, everything was fine until Calum decided to chase this notorious number 16, he really had this steer on the run!  Calum even knew him by name, Number 16, if he saw him out he would say "nixteen out!!"

And yet another thing to drive me insane, the swimming pool!  We have been spending a lot of our summer at the pool!  Champion has a brand new pool this year and it is fabulous!  It is so warm and the beach type entry truly is a marvellous addition!  When Emry had her swimming lessons Calum desperately wanted to go in too, I had to jump in and save him while I was holding Armin (luckily the water was only waist deep on me!).  Well, today I took the kids swimming and my mom was there with Gilbert and Lily so she actually swam with the kids while I fed Armin.  I watched Calum the entire time launching himself face first into the water over and over again!  No fear!!  When it was almost time to go I watched him slowly inch his way to the deep end (he had water wings on!), I walked over to where he was under the lifeguard chair and asked him what he was doing all by himself, he said, "I go off dere!"  I told him jumping off the lifeguard chair wasn't allowed, we then went through the 10 what's before I convinced him to jump off the diving board!  When it was time to get out I took him into the change room to get dried off and to put his clothes on!  He came with me very willingly (actually he always gets out really good because he can have a hot shower!)  Lily was with us in the change room so after we were all changed we all walked back out to the pool deck to give Lily to my mom and to get Armin.  As soon as we were through the doors Calum takes off and leaps back into the pool fully dressed!  We still had to go to Vulcan to get the propane tank filled for the barbeque, he went in only a swimmer!  That was all I had in the bag that was dry!

Today he also decided to sit on the potty to go poop!  He usually goes and hides when he has to do this, and honestly I haven't been too worried about potty training him quite yet, but we do try it out every so often!  Anyway today when he said he had to go I decided to try something a little different.  I got him some story books and a little stool.  We put his little seat on the big toilet and put the stool close so he could get up by himself, I told him to sit and read stories until he pooped!  He really liked this idea and actually did sit for about 10 minutes!  I was talking to my dad on the phone when Calum came running into the livingroom to get Emry and I, he said "Come see what I did!"  So Emry ran with him to the bathroom, and before I could get there Emry yelled, "Mom you have to see what Calum did!"  I was so excited that he had finally used the toilet!  Yet when I got there I wasn't totally surprised to see what he had done was actually on the floor beside the toilet!  At least he was close, right!?

Myrna and Lalainia were talking and sort of came to the conclusion that Calum may not feel any pain!  The more I see his little antics I am wondering the same!  Tonight for instance he followed Jared outside while I was putting Armin to bed.  All he had on was a diaper, and he kept saying, "Wait me daddy!  I go you!"  Jared was cleaning out the drills and had to walk across the yard to the shop, Calum followed him bare foot across the gravel, no complaints!  He gets swats on the bum quite often for not listening, Jared's are a lot harder than mine, and sometimes even sting his hand a little, and Calum is totally oblivious to the fact that he has a red mark on his bum, he is usually laughing!  Today he left the pool to give his little nursery buddy, Sophie, a hug and a kiss and on his way out he stepped on a wood staple, when I finally got to him he was standing on one leg with his little foot propped up on his knee trying to pull it out.  I took over for him and really had to pull to get it out, he didn't put up a fight or make any kind of fuss, as soon as it was out he carried on with his initial goal, to say his goodbye to Sophie!

I could go on forever about this sweet, yet mischievous little boy!  However I do have one last thing to say...The other day Emry was teasing Calum like she usually does to the point of him retaliating.  He happened to have one of his transformer cars in his hand so he threw it at her.  Jared instantly took it away and told him he couldn't have it back until the next morning.  Well later that night Calum still happened to be awake at ten and he started playing with his transformers.  He realized he was missing his police car and asked where it went.  I told him it was on the pool table because daddy took it away from him when he threw it at Emry.  We went through the "what momma" questions a few times and finally he understood and said "oh, that not good!"  He truly is the sweetest little boy and despite his lack of fear and his apparent lack of pain, the way his little eyebrows raise up when he looks at me, or his innocent smile, he always warms my heart.  When he does raise his eyebrows he looks just like Jack Nickleson from the Shining!  We play this game at bedtime where I sing "it's time, it's time, it's time, it's time....time to go to bed!"  Usually before I can say bed he says "go awake!"  When I sing bedtime songs to him he always sings the last word of each phrase with me, Emry used to do this too!  The other night I had to sing him a transformer song, I am not aware of any actual transformer songs out there but he would not let it go so I finally had to start making some up, thankfully he was satisfied with my lousy made up words!  Another thing with his transformer obsession...he will literally rub his hands all over his body from head to toe and become something different!  He did this for a good half hour one day, he would transform himself into a car and crawl around the floor making car sounds and when he got back to where Emry was playing he would transform himself back into Calum!  It is quite cute to see, he started to do this before he even watched the Transformer movie, the ideas they have and the things they pick up really amazes me!

I put this picture in because I honestly don't think a sign like this would deter Calum from testing the limits!  I truly hope his persistence will be a positive quality as he grows!

Ooops!  I said I was done, but when I was out mowing the front lawn and Jared was on the little Masey tractor mowing the rest of the yard Calum decided to check out the road!  Thankfully we were both out there and were able to see him go to the road, I ran after him (Jared did comment that he hoped I could run faster if there truly were an emergency...in my defence I was wearing gum boots that were much too big for me!).  I got to him and told him going on the road was not safe because cars don't slow down when they are driving on the gravel.  We honestly have to watch this little boy like a hawk!  And when Armin is his age I know for sure I will be grey all over, Armin is already reminding us more and more like Calum!  Watch out world, there soon will be two very eager and very energetic Puzey boys on the loose!