Independent Spirit

Austin celebrated his fifth birthday last weekend and has manifested his independent spirit several times this week to prove just what a big boy he is.

Take this picture for example:


He's capable of turning on the kitchen faucet by climbing the cupboards or getting a chair, but why work that hard when there's an easier way? I found it funny that he thought to turn it on using his "special stick".

How he found the "special stick" is another story. A very scary story. A story that I really don't want to remember but I'm sitting here posting about it anyway.

On Thursday, Joe, Hans, Joseph, and Grant walked to soccer practice which was at the park about 4 blocks away. Austin wanted to go with them, but I told him he had to stay home with me and the girls. He and Jennabee played inside the house for about 20 minutes while I worked on dinner. They eventually mosied into the backyard to jump on the trampoline and I checked on them every now and then to make sure they weren't getting into trouble.

Then the phone rang, it was Joe, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, what's up?

Joe: Not much. How are you?

Me: Great. Just working on dinner.

Joe: OK. How are Austin and Jennabee?

Me: Fine. They're outside in the backyard playing.

Joe: Oh. (pause) Actually, they're here at the park. They just showed up at soccer practice.

Me: (Cough, sputter, choke...) WHAT??? I just checked on them not that long ago and they were on the trampoline! This is bad... really, REALLY, BAD!

Joe: Yeah, I know.

Joe told me not to pick them up because there were only fifteen minutes of practice left. Those fifteen minutes seemed like an eternity to me. All of the bad things that could have happened, flooded into my mind over and over again. Run over by cars (they had to cross two fairly busy streets to get there), getting lost and wandering from street to street, getting snatched from the side of the road...the hazards seemed endless. And to think, at the precise moment they were walking to the park, I was in my happy little world, cooking and thinking "Wow, maybe we don't need to fence after all. The kids are so good about staying in the yard."

Once we were all together again, safe and sound, we asked Austin how he found the park. He said "I went bench to bench, just like Grandpa said". Grandpa had recently taught the boys that the way to find the park was to follow the benches to get there. There are several benches along the way within sight distance of one another. I'm so glad he knew the way! I shudder to think of him and Jennabee aimlessly wandering the roads trying to find Dad and the boys. It was while on the walk to the park that he found his special stick that "helped him walk when [his] legs got tired".

We had a firm chat with him and I'm keeping him on a tighter leash, but I can't help but wonder "what's next?" with him. He has had an independent spirit since his birth. His mannerisms as a baby were always different than my other babies. I've always known he was unique from Day 1.

I LOVE this kid and I never want anything bad to happen to him. Is it possible to tame such an independent spirit without destroying it completely?

And finally:

A picture of him on his birthday with his dragon cake. Thanks to Julie P. for the inspiration and for sending me the directions on how to make it.