Look out Chuck Norris!

Graham is our little caboose right now. If we ever do add to our family, I think I will still consider Graham the "baby" of the first set of kids, because he is already six and a half, and no more babies in sight - so, if God blesses us with another, I will truly feel like I am starting over. Anyway, you would think that because he is the "baby" that Graham would be sweet, cuddly, and attached to Mama. He kind of is all of that, but you have to know him to really appreciate the fact that, though he is very much my shadow during the day....all of that changes the second Daddy walks in!

Graham is full of testosterone driven energy! He is fiercely determined to get his way and he feels no pain! This is an exhausting combination for the mom - and that would be me! My daily challenge is how to subdue his selfish will, without breaking his determined spirit. I have a strong feeling that he will need it someday.

Currently, Graham's favorite fictional character is Walker, Texas Ranger (aka: Chuck Norris) - please believe me, that this is better than his last hero: Jack Bauer. (Long story, and I completely take the blame for it!) Graham is the youngest of four and his older brother, whom he looks up to, was 8 when he was born. I don't believe Graham was ever a baby. At least, not in the way of children's programming. He never liked Sesame Street or Dora, and he was born knowing the horrible little chants about "killing" Barney the dinosaur. Thankfully, we are not a big TV watching family, so his favorite shows right now consist of re-runs Little House on the Prairie, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Cosby Show.

Recently, however, Stan and I took a trip for our anniversary and my parents were babysitting. My mom is having some serious knee problems and she doesn't get around well right now, so she watches a lot of television. She knows we don't let the kids watch too much on tv, so she asked if she could bring DVDs of Walker down with her. We said she could...after all, no inappropriate commercials, just pure good (Rangers) versus evil (the bad guys). Right? Well, this is probably true, unless you view an ENTIRE season of Walker, uninterrupted, in a five day period!!! Which is apparently what Graham did, because by the time we returned from our trip, he was karate chopping every thing and every body in sight, he was begging for "paid" jobs around the house to earn money for a real Walker hat that he convinced someone to search out for him on the internet, and he could quote entire scenes from several shows!

Did I mention that when Graham gets something in his head, he is a man on a mission until it is done?! Too bad this trait doesn't normally apply to cleaning his room! He wanted that hat and he knows that we are not spending too much money on non-essentials these days, so he was willing to earn the money. The problem was that he wanted to earn the entire amount ($29.99 + shipping) in one day, and nothing else was a priority that day - like chores, school...

I did give him a couple of paid jobs that day, but then he and daddy had to have a very serious talk about priorities and patience. Eventually, he did earn his $29.99, and being the suckers that we are, we threw in the shipping. His authentic Texas Ranger hat arrived in the mail this week, and everyone has had a chance to try it out!