Owen and Mason were, and still are, pretty mellow kids. They've never been classified as mischiveous, rambunctious, or dare devils. Yes, they have their moments, but on the whole it's just not who they are.
Then there's this other kid of mine. He is a rascal in every single sense of the word! He's the climb up the ladder before he could walk, empty the cabinets, run faster in the opposite direction, color on the walls kind of kid. And we LOVE that about him. Every family needs one, right? And at not even 20 months, he already has enough language skills that he can form sentences from his own thoughts (not just repeating adults), and somehow boss you around until he gets what he wants. I've also heard him griping at other people; Owen was being slow to buckle up after getting in the car from school. Jack noticed and began saying 'Owen, go!' trying to get Owen to focus on what he should be doing. These traits have earned him the nickname 'Napoleon,' as in Bonaparte, the tiny general. Haha!
So today, I witnessed a 'Jack in a nutshell' moment, which was the inspiration of this post...
He found Owen and Mason's markers and asked to color. I plopped him in his high chair and handed him just one marker and a handful of crayons. I then gave him some paper (enough to scatter over the entire tray) and explained to him to color on the paper, and even demonstrated (again) what he was to do. He was safely entertaining himself, so I resumed what I had been doing. A few minutes later, I hear him repeating to himself 'Jack, paper. Jack, paper' as he's scribbling his marker ALL over the high chair tray! Yep, that's my kid.