Funny Stories

Maya and Nolan make me laugh all the time.  When I can think of it, I'm going to start posting stories so I will remember what kept us laughing when they were young.

During his 4's, Nolan went through (and is still going through) a period where he was very curious.  Sometimes this curiosity came off as naughty behavior and really made me crazy.  One day when we were running late for school, I had emptied the kitchen trash and left the bag at the top of our stairs.  I had planned to carry it out to the garage on our way out the door.  Five minutes later when I went to retrieve it, it wasn't at the top of the stairs, but instead at the bottom, overturned.  I asked Nolan what happened and he said he had rolled it down the stairs.  Exasperated, I asked him why he would do that...and he told me he wanted to see what would happen.

At this same time, he was taking a sports medley class and it was time for hockey.  While all the other kids were obediently whacking their pucks around the gym, Nolan would constantly pick up his puck and roll it along the ground and then chase after it, trying to whack it with his stick.  I lamented to a friend that I felt like I didn't understand Nolan and why he wasn't following the teacher's instructions and not listening to me at home.  Her words to me were like a light bulb.  She said he wasn't being naughty, his little scientific mind was just learning cause and effect.  He was curious about the trash bag rolling down the stairs and that outweighed any other thoughts he may have had.  He was curious about the hockey puck and how it rolled on the floor (it did not roll in a straight line by the way, but always curved one way or the other).

That day, I started to see things through a young, curious mind like Nolan's.  It made his naughty behavior make more sense to me and helped me not get so angry with him about his actions.  I may not have always been pleased, but at least I understood that his intentions were not to disrespect me, but to learn and explore.

The last story which I was able to retell and laugh about was a few nights after my "light bulb" moment.  I was reading bedtime stories to the kids.  Nolan was sitting in a funny position beside me.  All of the sudden, he kicked me in the eye.  Startled and in pain, I gasped.  He apologized.  We moved on and continued with the story.  A moment later, he started to do the same thing again, but in slow motion!   This time, since he was moving pretty slowly, I was able to catch his foot before it hit me.  I told him he had lost his story time privileges and that he needed to go to his room until bedtime.  When it was time to tuck him in, I went in to have a heart-to-heart with him.  I asked him why he kicked me in the face the second time after he had clearly hurt me the first time.  His answer was priceless....
 "Because I wanted to see what happened, Mommy."
  "What do you mean, Nolan?"
  "I wasn't trying to kick you in the eye.  I was trying to kick you in the nose."
 "So you were trying to figure out why your kick ended up in my eye when you were really aiming for my nose?"
 "Yeah."

Ahhhhh, the mind of a curious boy.