The Older They Get...

**dedicated to Ladybug and Serenity23... I tell you both, enjoy the little cute things your young sons are doing now, because the older they get... let's just say, that stuff they do ain't all that cute... Read on...

Well, I think my brother has moved in with me... We haven't discussed it much. I told him that whenever he feels like he can leave Ma's house without too much backlash, or without fear of being dogged out, then come on over...

All I gotta say, I forgot how different it is to have a boy around the house... Geez.

He seems to be really fond of the Laundry room, mainly because I have a laundry sink in there. Now we didn't grow up with laundry sinks, but I have found good uses for it...

...like perming my hair.

...like cleaning out the mop after I finish mopping the kitchen.

Stuff like that.

Now my brother, Kari a.k.a. Milk and Cookies, has found other uses...

He shuffled into the house the other day loaded down with a lot of military looking stuff... guns, flak jackets, big black helmets, gas canisters. I thought we were in for World War III...

Turns out he'd been out in some field somewhere playing paintball all day.

He spent a good hour in the laundry room cleaning up all of his gear in the laundry sink. (He spread everything out to dry on one of my GOOD towels! I was quite vocal in announcing my disdain for such actions...)

But I came home last night greeted by his big smile.

"Lee, I got a present for you!!!"

I sat my bag in a chair by the dining room table. "Well, that's nice, Kari."

"It's in the laundry room. Go have a look!" he yelled.

I found him to be a bit too enthusiastic. I threw my keys on the kitchen counter and walked into the laundry room.

I jumped.

Not sky high, but I jumped. Enough for my brother to know that I was spooked.

He laughed at me so hard. I didn't see a doggone thang funny at all.

In my laundry sink, I saw this:

I jumped because I thought it was a doggone snake.

Then I thought it was a catfish. Then I saw that fin on it's back.

"D, what is that?"



"It's a shark, Lisa!!"

I looked at him. He was looking at me like I was suppose to be jumping for joy or something.

You've got to be kidding me...

"You said you liked shark, Lee!" he hollered.

Okay. He was trippin'. I had a taste of shark when I went to my high school senior prom 20 years ago. I tasted a little of my date's shark dinner, and it tasted alright. And now, he assumed that I liked shark. Geez.

"Um, Negro, where you get that thang from?" I calmly asked.

"My boss went deep sea fishing and caught it." he yelled. "Shawty, they brought back a bunch of them."

You've got to be kidding me.

"Well, boy, are you going to clean it?"

He gave me that look. That look that says that he didn't feel like cleaning it, and maybe I would clean it instead.

"Negro, I KNOW you don't think I'm gonna clean it. Man, you betta go head on somewhere with that."

"Nawl, well," he said slowly. "We'll just freeze it, and clean it later."

"Yeah, well you wrap it in Cling wrap, heavy duty foil, then throw it in a garbage bag, you hear me?"

He quietly followed my directions.

"Oh, and uh... thanks man for the gift. That was really nice of you."

Humph. I miss the days when he would run up to me smiling, saying "Look Lee, I found a worm!"

So Serenity and LB, enjoy the times when they are 4 or 5 years old. That little stuff they do... like picking up bugs and worms, that lil' boy stuff they do, it's real cute...

But the older they get?

Watch out now! No telling WHAT they will bring home!!