A Few Stories

I wanted to share a few fun stories about Aaron while they are "fresh" on my mind... Some are a bit older, some are recent. But they are all cute and really show Aaron's personality!

• Timeouts are our current way of showing our disapproval for inappropriate behavior. Aaron is to stand in the corner with his head touching both walls and his hands behind his back until we deem him ready to come out. Many times I have found him putting himself in a timeout only to stumble across a mess he made later... What an honest kid!
• Aaron's favorite number is the number 6. You may ask how I know this. Well, for two reasons. The first comes from when he counts. He LOVES to count. When he is in the mood, he can count to 10 with no problems. But, sometimes his counting goes more like this:
         Aaron: 1, 2, 3, 6
         Me: 4
         Aaron: 4, 6
         Me: 5
         Aaron: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
  The other way I know is from when we watch Dancing With the Stars. Everytime the judges are told to reveal their scores, Aaron jumps up and down screaming 6! 6! 6!
• Aaron loves to copy everything. He has recently started calling me "Honey" or "Sweetheart" like Eric does...
• Aaron was being babysat at a friend's house while I was running errands. My friend, Ann Marie, gave Aaron some crayons to play with and turned her back. When she turned again to him she asked if he colored. He replied, "No. I eat it." She examined the crayon to find teeth marks and found crayon in his teeth. haha
• Aaron had a friend named Jude over the other day. Jude is very hands off so if Aaron shows any interest in a toy, Jude decides he doesn't want it. I wanted to make sure that Aaron did not take advantage of this so I told him if he didn't share with Jude, he would go in a timeout. Therefore, for the next 45 minutes, every toy Aaron picked up, he offered it to Jude first. Very rarely did Jude take the toy and Aaron still got to play with it.
• A few days ago, determined to get chocolate, Aaron went into our study when we weren't there and climbed on the desk. Sitting beside the candy jar were all the glass roses Eric has gotten me for anniversaries. I had them there because I enjoy looking at them on a regular basis. Sadly, in the process of getting chocolate, a vase was knocked over and one of my roses broke. We then had to explain to Aaron what it means to have something break. (I do not want anyone to think that in any way were we harsh in our explanation. Aaron is a very smart boy and all we have to do with him is explain and he will understand. I kid you not, it blows my mind how much he comprehends. But, I have a lot of memories wrapped in those roses and so I cried when I first saw it was broken.) The next day, Aaron was playing in his room and fell. I scooped him up as he cried and cried and cried. I knew that he couldn't be badly hurt so I asked what was wrong. He showed me the car in his hand and said through sobs, "Speed. Brake Speed..." (Speed is the name of the car) He had thought his car had been broken and was devastated. He saw how I reacted and mimicked my behavior in his own way. I did not know that I had that large of an affect on him and I will have to be more careful from now on.
• Like most parents, when we aren't sure if Aaron has soiled his diaper, we will check by pulling back his pants and diaper to look. I inform him that I am checking and then I tell him whether or not he is "stinky." Well, the other day, Eric was bending over messing with some cords and a sliver of his back was exposed. Aaron walked right up to him and said, "Poop?" He then pulled back Eric's pants and garments to check. After looking he said, "No diaper. No stinky." hahahahahahahahaha
• This story is a very special story that makes me tear up every time I think about it. Every night at bed time, we read scriptures with Aaron and say prayers. We use the picture/children's Book of Mormon. Eric will read one picture and then have Aaron repeat the words of the next picture. Then for prayers, we alternate who says the prayer and Aaron also gets an opportunity, though again it is him repeating us.
  Eric's cousin, Courtney, ran the Boston Marathon yesterday. At the marathon, bombs went off. She and her family were definitely watched over. Her knee was acting up so she was not at the finish line when the bombs blew and her parents were close enough to see people get injured but avoided injury themselves. I heard on the radio while out grocery shopping about the bombs and immediately called Eric's mom to make sure everyone was ok. She had only moments before gotten off the phone with Mark's sister (Courtney's mom) and was able to tell me the details. A little later, when I was putting Aaron back in the car after shopping, I heard him muttering. I made out a few distinct words. I heard "daddy," "gramma," and "grampa." Then he started muttering again. And finally, I heard, "name," "Jesus," "Christ," "Amen." It is like he knew that Eric and his parents would need extra prayers of comfort and he said his own prayer for them. It was literally a prayer straight from the heart and mouth of a child - one of the strongest prayers in existence.

I know I had more stories, but of course, as I sit down to write them, they elude me. I'll come back to this post and add more as I think of them.