Mr. Wild Animal

Yesterday morning.

We were late to school.

And I must say, I'm pretty dang impressed with myself that it's taken this long.

High five, Self!  


So, I went inside with Lucas so that he could get his pass to class.  10 minutes late.  Need a pass.

We walk up to the desk, where a parent volunteer was sitting.  I explained that we had a late morning.  "Oh, I understand how that goes!"  She answered cheerfully.  Then she looked at Lucas and said, "What's your first name?"

Like a lot of kids his age, Lucas gets very shy and embarrased when an adult asks him a direct question. I've seen dozens of little boys and girls bury their faces in their parent's leg when a well meaning stranger  dares to look them in the eye and try to make conversation.

But not my Lucas.

Shy and embarassed, yes.  But hide his face, no.

Instead, he kind of scrunched up his nose, looked around at the celing, and kind of hemmed and hawed in a little growly voice before answering, "Mr. Wild Animal."

That's right, folks.  My oldest child is named, Mr. Wild Animal.

I'd better get out the sharpie and change the name on his lunch box.

So here are a couple of photos taken of Mr. Wild Animal.  Because he turned 6.  And now he's a big kid.  Most of these are straight out of the camera, with no editing.  Because I'm tired.  And beaten down. And everyone in this house is out of clean socks and underwear.

Oh, Mr. Wild Animal...  You're the best.

I know this next one isn't perfectly sharp, but I love how happy he is...  so even though it's not perfect...  it's one of my faves.

 We were feeding the ducks.  You can imagine how he felt about it.

I've never seen a kid so in love with ducks...  I didn't know a kid could be so in love with ducks.  But this is Mr. Wild Animal we're talking about, so really...  I should have known.

Yup.  Pure, concentrated joy.  Six is gonna be great!