Leave it to Laish...and his Booger

My one & only son, Laish Levi (AKA Bodie - pronounced beau-dee), never fails to surprise me how very BOY he is. I am a female and therefore, usually have a hard time understanding what is going through his mind as he destroys many of his toys with his Styrofoam sword or jumps off the coffee table onto the carpeted yet hard floor or flies down the hill in the back yard sitting in a Tonka dump truck. I don't always get it but he's so fascinating to watch and wonder how God has made this little 3 almost 4 year old boy function.

So the other day, we are driving in the BMW with Laish to Grandma Shetler's house to pick up Emma. Now if you know Aaron, he loves a quality vehicle. The BMW is his 3rd baby and the other 2 kids know to be careful in and around this thing. As we are driving Bodie starts screaming, "KLEENEX! KLEENEX!" Which is interpreted to mean that he needs a kleenex & right now. I turn around to see his tiny finger holding a super-sized booger. I was so proud. I quickly realized that I had no kleenexes. Hmm, what to do. I knew this kid wanted this thing off his finger and like, now, so my first & only thought was, "Oh sh*t, he's going to smear it on the BMW." Frantically, I knew we were only a couple minutes from Grandma's so I asked him just to hold his finger high and wait until we got there. For some reason, that was the only thing either Aaron or I could come up with. Obviously, very inexperienced parents.

About 15 seconds later I look back to make sure THE Infamous BOOGER hadn't disappeared on the seats or window of Aaron's prized possession. I see Laish sitting nicely with his hands folded in his lap. "Laish, where's the booger?" I think Aaron had a small heart attack. And just as innocently as he dug in his nose for it, he just as innocently and matter of factly stated, "I put it back in my nose."

Like, duh, Mom. Did you think I was going to hold that nasty thing for 2 minutes on MY finger. How could you not laugh to that response? I think Aaron was very proud of his son at that moment as I watched his face pause to realize what Laish had said and then bust out laughing. I actually didn't believe him at first. No way would he stick that, that, thing back in his nose. So I asked him to pull it back out so I could see it. Sure enough, there it was - stuck back in his nose and now back out again looking just as huge & nasty as the first time.

As I told the story to Aaron's parents that night on the phone, I could only reflect how much I loved this little boy with his constant surprises and clever booger picking & booger storing techniques. He's all boy and yet, I actually understood his simple act that day. Ever wonder why God chose children as examples of innocence and how to get to heaven? I think it was because He knew he was going to create Laish and his super-duper booger.