The Giggling Lawn Mower

A few Fridays ago I decided to test my ability to stay sane and invite three of my nephews to my tiny little house to spend the night. After I got off work my sister and b-i-l dropped them off and the evening began. We started out by climbing my magnolia tree. Tree climbing was never my thing while I was growing up but I can understand their enjoyment and the rush they get from “climbing all the way up there.” My magnolia tree isn’t all that tall, but for 7, 5, and 3 year old boys its great. I guess its also great for roommates who like to talk on the phone while sitting in trees. But that is a different story.

Next the adventure took us to a local elementary school’s playground. I was impressed by the older boys’ ability to do the monkey bars. I’ve never been good at them and when I was growing up I guess I didn’t see the fun in feeling like the skin was going to be ripped off my hands. I guess that maybe that is part of the draw for the boys; they tend to like gross things. So what if the skin is pulled off their hands, that’s cool isn’t it? You can see blood and muscles and stuff.

While we were walking back to my house the youngest was really dawdling. I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to what he was doing because I was trying to keep my eyes on the two older boys who had thought they should run ahead and keep running even after I yelled to them to wait. After a little while, after the two finally stopped, I started watching what the youngest more closely. He was doing this odd thing of trotting about 10 feet, stopping, acting like he was starting a pull cord engine, and they he would trot another few feet all the while making an engine noise. Then it hit me. He was pretending to be a lawn mower. It was hilarious.

The next morning the older two boys woke up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons. After about half an hour I checked on the three year old. I heard an unexpected noise come from him so I leaned down to hear him better. He was giggling in his sleep. A little bit later when he woke up he told me that he was having funny dreams.

Weeks later this still makes me laugh. My nephew the lawn mower giggles in his sleep.