Human mudpies
The boys and I crashed a Super Bowl party on Sunday afternoon. Technically, it was for our church's youth group, but it was outside in an enclosed backyard (with a blow-up screen), meaning Benjamin and Jonah could run around while I caught an ad or two. And Harper was going to be there. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Harper totally rocks my boys' world.
So I met up with Amy and the two of us skated our respective two kids in strollers (Amy looking glammy in her newly cropped hair, me just trying not to fall flat on my face) over to the party.
I learned that night that Harper is light years beyond Benjamin and Jonah as far as civilized eating is concerned. Amy put a plate of chips and cheese sauce within their reach (DANGER! DANGER!) and several minutes into the meal his shirt was still white. When he discovered jumping off the deck was more exciting than eating, Benjamin and Jonah took over. In the 5.2 seconds it took me to refill their water, Jonah smeared most of the cheese across his shirt and Benjamin hands were dripping with the rest.
Twelve damp paper towels later (and after Benjamin shoved Harper's unwatched hot dog in his mouth), the three boys were off again, talking, dancing, and giggling amongst themselves.
It was during this brief respite that I saw the Diet Pepsi-Max-head-nodding commercial, which was very funny. Then I had to scurry over and remind Benjamin that we don't remove dirt from potted plants and sprinkle it all about the deck like fairy dust. I had literally just sat down when Amy called to me, "You better come here, Laura. And bring your camera."
Really, it was beyond words.
All three boys were standing in a dirt hole. Benjamin had dirt caked on his head and all down his right side, and a big grin on his face. Jonah had undergone a race change....
and the dirt had mixed with the cheese on his shirt to form a large patch of cakey sludge. Then I saw Harper, pristine in his still-white shirt. I turned to Amy and asked, "How is he still so clean?" And right at that moment Harper dumped a large cup of dirt on top of Jonah's head.
Question answered.
Yet again, Amy and I were hysterically laughing. Jonah just smiled and kept playing happily in the dirt hole, knowing how fortunate he was to have a Human Excavator for a friend, and thinking to himself: "More dirt on my head, cool."
55 damp paper towels later, I released the boys to play for a few minutes as I pack up to go. In an effort to drink a sip of water, Benjamin upturned a large cup of water on his head.
So who needs Super Bowl ads for entertainment when you have Human Mudpies cavorting around?
Feb 6, 2008 at 8:31 PM
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