You Don't Have to Teach Sneaky

For several weeks I've been a little worried that we'd turned our little boy into a card carrying redneck way before it was time. The first sign was that at the site of one of our dogs nearing his chair at dinner time, you could hear him screaming throughout the house "eeeeeeeeeeehn" (to get the full effect of this noise, take yourself back to the sound that came from the old man in your neighborhood as he ran out on his porch attempting to deter dogs from digging in his trash). This was really funny at first, but then became a little concerning when I realized he was imitating me, and I wondered what else do I utter throughout the day that gives away the not so eloquent side of my southern heritage. However, it did keep the dogs away from his food and alerted me to when they were breaking the rules.

Today I noticed a shift in the tides. I walked into the kitchen to find Tate under the table happily sopping up every crumb of Wilson's breakfast as he threw it to him on the floor. I watched for a few seconds until Wilson looked up and saw me. As soon as our eyes met he blurted out "EEEEEEEEEEHN"! Too late! Busted! His inner monologue must have gone something like, "Um, oh, shoot! Maybe if I scream real loud she'll think he snuck up on me. Yeah, that's it, he snuck up on me. That's our story, I'm eating my cereal, Tate walked in real quiet like, I was so scared I dumped the whole bowl on the floor, then in shock I sat and watched. She'll buy that." I think he's also got some ocean front in North Dakota if anyone's interested. I can just see the two of them in some dark room somewhere plotting. "Okay, I like to throw food on the floor and you like to eat food off the floor. I think we can work something out here."

His first attempt at sliding one past mom. The teen years should be fun!