Just Dancin'

Weekend Family Feature

(Nolanbuck note:  Since I concentrate on current events through the week, I'm going to make it a point to post a more family-centered post or two each weekend.  Also, look for another Buck to perhaps make his debut as a contributor here at 2Bucksworth.com.  More on that later...)

My oldest son recently reminded me of one of the more hilarious episodes in his childhood (he's now 20).  Since he brought it up, I don't feel bad about sharing it with the rest of the planet. LOL

The year was 1995, and my wife, our sons (ages 6, 3 & 1) and I had just moved into the new house that we had built (there's a story in itself.).  We had been wallpapering the kitchen earlier in the day, but the wife & I had left the Eldest (6) and Coppertop (3) in the living room watching tv while we went upstairs with the baby to move a piece of furniture into one of the kids' rooms.

We did not intend to be upstairs for long, and were only in the room for a few minutes when we heard Coppertop ascending the stairs, audibly upset.  We waited for him to arrive to let us know the source of his discontent (3 year olds move slowly on stairs, unless they are headed down diaper-over-teakettle, in which case they make fairly rapid progress).  When he found us he was wet from head to toe and not the least bit happy about it. When we asked him how he got so wet, he gave us a one word explanation, Eldest.

So we called Eldest upstairs to see what he knew.  Obviously, he was as "shocked" as we were to see the soggy state of his middlest brother, and posited that perhaps Coppertop had pulled the dipping tray for the wallpaper down upon his own red head, thus releasing the torrent that drenched him.

Well, as the wet kid dripped dry, we all went down to the kitchen to unravel this whodunit.  Two things became immediately apparent: 1) the tray had been empty and placed in the sink when we left the kitchen and 2) the tray in the kitchen sink was much too high for little Coppertop to reach without help.  Faced with this evidence, Eldest never wavered, claiming he had not even been in the room.  I was fairly certain Eldest had filled the tray with water and dumped it on his unsuspecting toddler of a brother, but I played along...

"Where were you then", I asked.

"In the living room", the oldest calmly replied.

Well, what were you doing in the living room", I queried.

Without batting an eye, he says: "I was dancin'. "

"Really?"  I answered, choking down a chortle.  Thinking I'd finally tripped him up, I went in for the kill...  "Could you show me this dance?", I asked.

Without a word of protest, my 6 year old son launched into an impromtu flurry of intepretive dance that looked like a cross between "Swan Lake" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo".  By the time he got to the big finish (he stuck the landing, BTW) I was laughing so hard I could not continue the cross-examination and I conceeded the field.

I knew he'd doused his brother, that wasn't the point.  Coppertop was waterproof and all brothers do things like that to each other.  But in trying to teach Eldest a lesson about honesty I learned a lesson of my own: smart kids are difficult to outwit, but smart kids with rythym win everytime.

Nolanbuck