You did what?? another part of the adventure that began 1-21-89

. James as a toddler (and still to this day as an adult) is more of a night person. He will rise early if he must, but he isn't happy about it. I have gone to bed many a night, drifting off to the sound of warfare, race cars or some other video game noise only to wake in the very early hours of the morning to find him still playing away.








I had a set bedtime for James. It was of course adjusted as time passed, but as a toddler he knew when certain things began taking place that bedtime was fast approaching. I would get him to bed, check on him several times before I called it a night to find his angelic self sleeping the sleep of the innocent. You simply cannot trust angelic toddlers that are creatures of the night. We had to install several locks high up on the doors because James woould get up, and go outside. Our yard was and is fenced in. We had two of the Lassie type collies that watched James like a hawk when he was outside..but a toddler does not need to be wandering around alone in the dark. He would still get up in the night, and not wake anyone. So I learned to never walk through my house barefooted in the dark, especially after the cereal incident. Trust me in the fact that Rice Krispies hurt when stepped on. Yes, my angel had gotten up on the night, found the brand new family size box of cereal and carpetted my floor with it. It was somewhat remeniescent of that scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where the guy was building the mountain in his house..cereal was every where. Peanut butter was another favorite of his for decorating, himself and what ever was within reach.







Then there was the time I had done some painting in the kitchen and really had it cleaned up nice. I came in from work to find that he had taken a permenant marker and given my nice white kitchen bold red zebra stripes.







About that time we had a twenty gallon aquarium in the kitchen. On a stand, just inside the doorway it was a community tank with a variety of tropical fish. James loved watching them as they happily swam about, swearing they knew when he was there, that they would come to see him, all the wonderfully imaginative things you think are so cute to hear.







I came in one afternoon to find that James had decided that the fish wanted coffee. He had dumped an entire eight ounce jar of instant coffee into the aquarium. The filter had already been changed once by my husband and was in need of another cleaning as it tried to clear the water of the high octane additive. After wards I was happy to announce that the fish seemed unhurt, just tired from the fact that they had for a while been swimming around a lot faster.







James always seemed to love doing things right after I had purchased groceries- I guess it gave him more to make a mess with. I mean, if you're going to make a mess, make a good one.







The very next week.. James decided that the fish had enjoyed that first serving of coffee so much that he was giving them another, this time with cream. An entire eight ounce jar of instant coffee and a gallon of milk. This time all of the fish had to be taken from the tank and kept in another container until we could get the tank cleaned. The milk was just too much. This time we lost one of the fancy little catfish that been one of the largest in the tank. While the aquarium had always had a cover on it, we now rigged a way to latch it to try and keep James from giving the fish any more gifts.







Of course there was also the variety of toys that were flushed to that Devil's Triangle for toys... the septic tank.







There was the peanut butter sandwhich in the vcr, along with the cereal..and the toy car..

no arguement that he is most definitely all boy-- and I thank God every day for him. Then..and now.















James will be 22 years old tomorrow. Where has the time gone? I am so proud of you son.