Boys

I am entering a drawing from Jules at Everyday Mommy. She asked us to write about the most daring, adventurous or cute thing our son/s have done. This story quickly came to mind. Our 3rd child and 2nd son is a humdinger to say the least. There are tons of words to describe him. Maybe you have one living in your house? Spicy, fiesty, courageous, tough, fast, loving, quick tempered, sweet.... I could go on and on. This incident from his early years should have clued me in to the wild ride we had in store for us.

We were visiting family out of state. I took the kids to a local park so they could run off some energy after being stuck indoors for hours. This was a great playground, complete with a Little Tykes bike riding area, tunnels and a pirate ship. Our fiesty son was manning the controls on the pirate ship. The other children were doing their own thing on another part of the playground. I was talking on my cell phone to my mother while trying to keep 2 eyes on 4 kids. When I glanced up and saw Mr. Fiesty surrounded by 2 older boys. At this time our son was probably 3 and the older boys looked to be about 7 or 8 years old. The older boys were doing their best to convince my son that it was their turn to steer the boat. Our son, however, wasn't convinced. I stopped my cell phone conversation to try and listen to the "discussion" among the boys on the ship. When.....all of a sudden......elbows started flying, legs started kicking, and fists started swinging. You'd think the big boys were trying to overpower my sweet, little, helpless 3 year old. But, no. My son was taking out the older boys and.......he was winning! I wasn't sure what to do. I stood there in amazement, as did the older boys. Of course, I eventually scolded my son for fighting but secretly I was proud of how he stuck up for himself and stood his ground even though the boys were bigger than he was.

In the years that have passed we have had a handful of other incidents like that. Mr. Fiesty is beginning to learn that fighting is not the answer, but other children are learning not to mess with him either. All in the same breath I am proud and mortified. That's what it's like to be the parent of Mr. Fiesty... an adventure to say the least.