A Smack In the Face

Originally posted 2/23/06; Ryan still won't play catch with anyone
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Don't know why I thought of this but this last summer Ryan did something that just cracked me up. My sister-in-law was over for dinner with her family and this is his very favorite aunt. Her name is Christina but Alex couldn't say that when he was little so she became Aunt Teenie and has been ever since. Well, Ryan loves Teenie almost more than me. He says he loves us both the same ("as big as the garage") but it is a pic of him as a baby with her that he has insisted on having in his room in a frame that says I ♥ My Mommy. Yes, a kick in the gut everytime I enter the room, but I'm learning to live with it.

So, she's here for dinner and we're bbq-ing and eating out on the back patio. While we're waiting for dinner to start, Ryan and Teenie go into the yard to play catch. He has a mitt that's just his size and she's using Barry's. He's done this before with other family members and did as well as most freshly turned (he'd let you know that, too; "freshly turned" he'd say after telling someone he was now 4) 4 year olds do. So, she is tossing the ball underhand to him and he does OK until about the third or fourth throw. Then it comes...the toss that he misses and hits him square in the face. This is a baseball, too. Not some twinky Nerf thing or a wiffleball or something.

It's worth noting here that Ryan is subject to fits of real anger. He's done it since before he could even say real words. He would scream at us in his babble and shake his finger at us and go on and on and then stomp out of the room. Just when you thought you were safe, he'd stick his head around the corner again and go at you again. Very much a "furthermore and another thing" type of deal. As he's gotten older, I swear the boy has been working on his arguing skills. He's got an argument for EVERYTHING.

So, he gets hit in the face and the sweet little boy that began playing catch with his beloved Teenie contorts into this evil little beast. Something akin to the movie Gremlins. His twisted little face looks at her and screams, "You hit me! You suck at this game!" And then he marches off. It was probably one of the most priceless moments in his little life. He hasn't played catch since.