His middle name is Trouble

Today I was peeling eggs to devil for the party at Johanna's and I had sent Chet, Todd, and Kyle out to pick wild blackberries for a cobbler when Faith came running in the door telling me there was a cop coming up our driveway. My heart started racing, and I opened the door with some trepidation. What in the world could have happened now??

He looked at me very sternly and said, "You might want to talk to your son." Um okay... so I had to ask him, "which one?" Heaven knows anyone of them could have found several different ways to get to this guy. He said, "The one who just ran in the house." "Faith, which one of your brothers just ran in the house?" Faith said, "Well, Todd is hiding under the beds." "Yes, well, go ask him to come here please." It turns out that he saw the officer driving around the circular driveway and decided to throw his blackberries at his squad car. So Todd comes to the door, where I scold him for throwing things at the police, and I tell him to apologize. At this point Todd says, "Fine... I am sorry (dramatic pause) BUT YOU WERE TRYING TO RUN ME OVER!!!" I just wanted the earth to swallow me whole. I don't think I have ever seen a cop so angry. He has probably never been pelted with blackberries before, and then accused of trying to commit vehicular manslaughter on a four year old. He may have wanted to by the time he left, though. Sometimes it is so hard to be a mom... especially when you have to be a mom who is dying to laugh but doesn't dare. This is such a small town that every stop the police make is printed in the newspaper that comes out once a week, so I am going to clip the printout and add it to a page. I don't think I will share the page with the cop, though. I hope Todd doesn't get a reputation as a juvenile delinquent before his 5th birthday. And I really hope this isn't a precursor to his teenage years. I just never know what this boy is going to think of to say or do next!