The Dude Abides...

This weekend was full of small moments where my son managed to give me insight into the inner workings of his mind.

First there was the moment during an opportunity to play with our neighbors in their backyard, in which one neighbor child was playing in the sandbox and the other neighbor child, who even at the tender age of almost 6 is quite the natural athlete, was shooting hoops, my son was laying on the ground with a small soccer net on top of him, pretending he was trapped in Spider Man's web. This gives me pause and makes me wonder seriously how organized sports will play out beginning next month.

Another moment came when we had a friend over for a play date, and the friend was bouncing around our living room investigating things while Cooper, in an attempt to get his attention to show him a DVD, kept saying "Dude. Dude. DUDE." Dude? Really? I will admit this is probably my "fault" as I call him dude, or Little Dude, all the time. But it made me stop and realize I really DO need to watch what I say because he WILL repeat everything.

We have also instituted the marble jar at home. They do this at school, where the students get to put a marble in a jar if they have been behaving particularly well, or are very helpful with something, and the goal is to get some prize at the end when the jar is full. At school they will go to lunch at the college cafeteria with the big students. Not sure that is really a PRIZE, I have eaten in that cafeteria afterall, but the kids will think it is cool. At home we have not been making much headway with putting marbles in, mostly because we forget about it. This weekend I decided since the weather was finally turning a bit, we needed to institute the Family Walk. This is basically a walk around the block after dinner at the moment, but has the potential to be expanded once we get into the routine.

My child wanted nothing to do with this. You would think I was asking him to wrap a skunk around his head while making him eat. Eat meat, which he refuses to eat. So I told him he would get 5 marbles for taking a walk, and did he know what he would get when he filled his marble jar???? A new bike. A two wheeled, big boy bike. "With small wheels too???" meaning training wheels. He was ready to take that walk now. We decided to take one dog with us, and as we got out front, Coop tried to talk me into "just walking back and forth, up and down" not around the block. Oh silly boy, that is not the deal. Then as we TRUDGED around the block, and Cooper was drooping from exerting himself, he kept muttering "This is taking forEVEEEERRRRR."

I deny everything and demand proof. I have no idea where the drama gene came from. But I can hear my mother laughing all the way from Oregon, and thinking "Karma is a bitch."