This Way or That Way

Animal Boy.

He's always had a fascination with animal life. Anything really. It began before he turned 12 months. He loved farm animals. That turned to jungle animals. Then lions in particular. Puppies and kittens took center stage for a while. More recently, it's been bugs. Roly Polys, ladybugs, praying mantis, spiders, and earwigs to be more exact. He loves to catch them and collect them. A mother's dream, right?

I can confidently say that he has perfected the human form of a lion's roar. It is honestly quite loud and ferocious. It pretty much scares his older sister right out of her herself. She can't stand it.

And so last year for Halloween, it was very fitting that he would be himself.

The year before that, he didn't have much choice in the matter because of his age, but now looking back it was appropriate that he was a

Lately, he's somehow decided that he is a worm. We are all part of a worm family even. Hello, my name is now Mommy Worm. He's even developed his own worm voice, which is squeaky and nerve grinding. He's been a worm now for about a week. When asked by my sister what kind of worm he is, he replied in his squeaky worm voice, "A little green one." He now even has made himself what he calls

So, what got me to thinking about all this is a story of his antics that happened on Sunday. We were at church and the most reverent of the meeting was going on, the passing of the Sacrament. Straight Arrow was helping to pass the sacrament because of the lack of Aaronic Priesthood holders we have in our ward. So, I had the kids all to myself for a little while. I'll start off by saying that we've pretty much gotten to a good point with the kids in that they are very reverent during Sacrament meeting now. It's felt like a long road, but I'm very glad to feel like we've, for the most part, arrived.

Sunday was different though. We were nearing the end of our 'vacation' and Green Light was definitely needing some more structure back into his life. So as the sacrament was being passed, he began to growl. Now, when I said earlier that his roar has been perfected, I need to explain that the roar is very loud and in your face. The growl that I now speak of is a low rumbling in the bottom of his throat; something else that he has pretty much perfected. I'd even go as far as to say that if you didn't know for sure that it was him making that sound, you might actually think that an animal was nearby ready to attack. It's that real.

So, he growled. I gave him 'the look' and he gave a huge, smirky smile back at me and I knew that he had no plans of stopping. The family sitting behind us began to giggle at it and this only egged him on. I leaned over, reminded him that this is a time to be reverent, and warned him that I would have no problem leaving with him if he did it again. There was a woman sitting in front of us who is an older lady with perhaps some issues associated with having a stroke. As the growling continued, she turned around and loudly exclaimed, "What was that?" and proceeded to stare at Green Light in hoping to determine the noise she heard.

I knew it was all over then....and we headed right out of the chapel. Although it was not at all funny to me then, I can't help but laugh every time I have thought of it since.