It's all coming back to me...

Do you know how when your kids say or do something funny that you swear you will never forget it? Well, that is not working so well for me. Maybe if I only had one or two...but not so good with many. I remember scenarios but do not necessarily remember who 'done it'.

Thank goodness for blogger. As much as you all think that I write daily (or as frequently as possible) strictly for your entertainment, I do so mainly for the archival bonus of memory keeping. For example, remember that "Freakins'" incident with Kate a few Christmases back? Well, had I not written about it at the time, there is a really good chance that I would never remember which one of the kids said it.

Which brings me to an incident that happened yesterday. Andrew and Kate were being inquisitive naughty. They took it upon themselves to torment the cat. Why the cat does not just hide, scratch their little arms or bite them, I will never understand...but she does not. So after about two warnings to keep their grubby hands off of the cat they finally were punished on the third infraction. Punished with a little (very little) swat to the butt and sent to their rooms.

Fast forward to much later in the day when I was putting laundry away in the boys' room and doing some general clean-up while in there. I discovered poked under the bottom bunk a book that had been TORN UP. TORN UP, I tell you. Not the whole book, as it was quite a large book, but the front cover, back cover and several pages. I was livid. In a motherly livid way. Someone was going to get it and they knew it.

After asking the oldest three and seeing genuine shock and surprise on their faces, that led me to believe that the culprit may indeed be the sleeping angel currently dreaming on his bunk. Nicholas was furious. It was his book. He was outraged that anyone could or would do something so violent against him.

As I tried to calm him a sudden image and memory came back to me. One that otherwise would have remained lost for generations to come. A still life image came to mind of a time long ago when the boy that was currently the victim was then the culprit. I remembered coming into Nicholas' room after he had been sent to a time-out there, when he was just two or three, and finding him sitting in the corner by his books scowling menacingly at me with paper shred surrounding him. I was livid then too.

When prince charming awoke later and we asked him what had happened to his brother's book he admitted quickly that he had tore it up. When asked why, his response was identical to the response I received five years ago from yet another. "I was mad at you mommy, you panked me."

Oh to have been a blogger when Nic was little. Man oh man. Fresh material each and every day.