We dressed Calfgrit3 in some warm, loose-fitting pajamas with a button-up top. He looks real cute in those PJs. The next morning, he came out of his bedroom missing his shirt and socks. We figured he got too warm or something.

The next night, we put him back into those pajamas. The next morning, he’s out of his shirt and socks again. Okay. Calfgrit7 often doesn’t wear a shirt or socks to bed, so we figure CG3 is just copying his big brother. (CG7 is hot natured, and his sheets and blanket are enough for him at night.)

The next night, we put CG3 in different but similar pajamas. The next morning he comes out of his room in completely different and not similar pajamas. He’s wearing tight PJs with robots on them. We already know these are his favorite, but we’re just learning how favorite.

He’s never put on his pajamas all by himself. Usually, I or his momma help him by at least holding them up and open so he can step into or stick his arms into the clothes. But he not only put them on by himself that night, he did it in the dim glow of a nightlight.

We talked to him about his pajamas, and he says he doesn’t like the loose fitting ones, and he doesn’t like the button-up shirts for sleeping in. Okay, we can work with that.

Then yesterday, his momma put him down for a nap in the middle of the day, in his clothes, like always. When he came out of his room an hour and a half later, he was in his robot pajamas. Nice. He apparently got out of bed, took off his clothes, put on his favorite pajamas, and got back in bed to sleep. You gotta give the little guy credit: he knows what he likes, and he handles it himself.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Calfgrit7 is joinin’ the Cub Scouts. He was unsure about the idea at first, but after we met the den boys at a bowling alley one Saturday a couple weeks ago, he started thinkin’ better ’bout it. He learned the Cub Scout sign, shake, salute, and motto immediately, and he’s proud to show ’em off when I ask him to perform for someone.

And then we went to the local Scout Shop to buy his uniform. I guess there’s somethin’ about a uniform that boys just love. He was very int’rested in everything in the store, and was excited to try on the shirt. I got ‘im the shirt, a hat, a belt, a neckerchief, and the patches he needs to start off. He was so happy with it all, he asked to take a picture of the stuff sittin’ on the sales counter. I handed him my camera-phone and you see the result.

His hesitance at our initial offer for him to join the Scouts had me worried he wouldn’t take to it. But his enthusiasm has grown. I was in Scouting as a young boy — Cub through Weblos — and I remember it as some fun with other boys. I don’t remember why I dropped out of the group, but I have a feelin’ it was prob’bly because it was too organized for me. I’m not big on organized clubs and such, and I can see this aspect of me in Calfgrit7. He and I both like “free time” to do our own thing.

Well, so long as he enjoys it and has fun in it, we’ll do Scouting. I’m glad we got him to try it, but if he decides it’s just not for him, we won’t push him in it.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Once a year, some group in our area organizes a big consignment sale for children stuff. It’s a good thang. It let’s parents, especially low income parents, buy toys and equipment (strollers, highchairs, etc.) for really cheap, and it let’s the sellin’ parents make a little something back. For the past two or three years, Cowgrit has consigned some of our boys’ old junk to the sale.

I’m all for just takin’ our old stuff to Goodwill or somethin’, just to get the junk out of the house as soon as possible. But Cowgrit likes to hold onto the stuff for several months and sell it at this sale. It does end up bringin’ us a hundred bucks or so, which she turns around and uses to buy the boys new clothes and stuff. So I don’t complain about us holdin’ onto the old stuff too much. She’s the one that puts the effort into taggin’ everything for the sale, so it’s no skin off my nose.

Anyway, durin’ the organization for this sale, we usually haul our junk down there early in the set up day (a week before the event). Every time I’ve taken our stuff in the buildin’, it’s been mostly empty. But this time I took our stuff late in the day, and I got to see what the sales floor really looks like. There’s toys and equipment everywhere; dozens of everything, all over the floor and tables.

I was stunned. I never knew there was this much stuff in the event. And most of it’s in pretty good shape. (The stuff we’ve always put in has been nice, never real junk.) I’m impressed. I actually saw some toys I’d like to have, that I’ve never seen in stores.

There was a full wall shelf, probably six feet wide by eight feet high full of Elmo dolls. There was a clear plastic box the size of a large footlocker full of loose Lincoln Logs (labeled as one item for sale). There were prob’bly more than 20 bicycles. There were rows of highchairs and car seats. Just a ton of stuff.

The sale also has kids’ clothes, but that part of the event is in another buildin’. I took our old kids’ clothes in and commenced to hanging them on the labeled racks. Most of the clothes we were sellin’ was stuff I hadn’t seen before. But there was one shirt in our stack that I decided to keep.

When Calfgrit7 was 2 or 3 years old, he loved Thomas the Tank Engine. One of his fav’rite things was a blue t-shirt with Thomas on the front. He’s long since outgrown it, and it’s too small for Calfgrit3 to wear (the season wasn’t right when he was the right size for it), so it’s just an old useless shirt now. But when I look at it, I just want to hug it. When I picture Calfgrit7 at 3 years old, this is the shirt I see him wearin’ in my mind’s eye. So I pulled it out of the sale stack and brought it back home with me.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I was tired last night, and I fully intended to go to bed before 9:00 pm. Calfgrit3 has been wakin’ up between 5:00 and 5:30 in the mornin’ for a couple weeks, and it’s completely worn us out. He wakes up fully alert, happy, and ready to get the day started. He gets that from his momma — she’s a mornin’ person, although she points out she’s not that much of a mornin’ person.

Anyway, after the boys were in bed, I sat on the couch to rest for a little while before movin’ on to the bed. I turned on the TV and began clickin’ through the channels. I came across Die Hard, the original movie on AMC, and Wyatt Earp, the movie on the History Channel. I clicked back and forth b’tween ’em when commercials came on, and I was hooked.

Nine o’clock came and went, and then ten o’clock passed too. Wyatt Earp is a dog-gone long movie — it didn’t seem half way over when Die Hard ended. After DH, The Matrix came on AMC. ‘Bout that same time, the WE story reached the shoot out at the OK Corral. Eleven o’clock passed. I watched the famous shoot out and then got int’rested in watchin’ Neo escape the Matrix.

It was after 11:30 when it really struck me just how late it was, and how really tired I was. Damn I was bein’ stupid. I watched a few more minutes of both movies ’til I realized I was prob’bly only gonna to get about five hours sleep. Oh God, I was gonna to hate to wake up.

What a total waste of my evenin’. I came to realize Kevin Costner ain’t a good actor, Bruce Willis is great at the one character he always plays, in every movie, and Keanu Reeves was born to play Neo (but nothing else). Or maybe I’m just orn’ry from lack of sleep and angry at having wasted potential sleep time on 10-20 year old movies I’ve already seen.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com