Roughin' It

This is the incident that finally inspired me to get the blog going. I think we have told everyone we know about this little doozy already, but it must be preserved (especially for blackmail material later on).

Elliot spends a good part of his day in the backyard lately, talking with his fence buddies Arie and Grady. He has a little "campsite" set up in the corner under the trees, complete with tent and lawn chairs.

A couple times in a few days, Elliot makes passing comments about going potty outside. Okay, I think, no big deal. He's peed outside before in a couple emergencies; he's just pretending to really be camping. Then one morning, I hear him come in the kitchen, and I find him sitting on the floor struggling to pull up his jeans. I decide to go out and investigate.

I cautiously approach his campsite, and there on the ground, surrounding a tree stump, is a collection of LOGS. Not the kind made out of wood. And most appeared to have been there for awhile.

I came in the house, lectured Elliot as well as I could without bursting out laughing, then ran to the computer and anxiously IM'd Brad. It took me a good half hour to stop giggling spontaneously. "So if you're in the backyard, and you're confused as to why it looks like a dog has been here," I warned him, "Don't worry. It was just your son."

Episode 2:
Later that same afternoon, I go out back to play with Elliot as Audrey finishes her nap. He's loading his vast collection of handbags into the wagon, when I hear him mutter something about "I have to close the door so that it doesn't get stinky." In one horrifying flash I put two and two together, and open the storage compartment on the wagon to find, that's right, more logs among the old leaves trapped inside. This time I skip the lecture and go straight to IM Brad again, laughing until I cry.

For a good week, we wonder how many neighbors looked out their back window to see our boy with his pants down, dropping a load in his wagon.