Rob and Kim Routson Family

Chase is a really good kid. His maturity amazes me, and I am always impressed with the good choices he makes. This is why I am surprised when, on rare occasions, he makes a decision that reminds me he is only four.

Chase is scrubbing the walls after he drew all over the basement walls. He colored all over the hallway leading down to the basement, the landing area walls, and some places in the play room. Why? I guess he is the only who know. All I know is that he spent the next 20 minutes scrubbing the marker off the walls. As Chase was scrubbing Rob sang the song "It a hard knock life for us" from the movie Annie. Chase on the other hand, was mumbling under his breath, "I am never ever ever going to do this again." Such words are music to a mother's ears.

Chase's hands after he was done scrubbing. He washed most of the paint off with the marker, so now I need to paint again. I should consider myself lucky that things like this don't happen very often. When I was growing up I broke and destroyed so many things. A few thing I remember doing are:

• Kicking in the kitchen cabinet
• Hanging on the railing by the stairs and ripping it off the wall
• Hanging on the bathroom hooks in my parents bedroom and ripping them off the walls
• Hanging on the kids bathroom towel rack and ripping it off the wall
• leaning on my moms table she had just spent hours sanding and refinishing and breaking it in half
• Throwing things in the house and breaking my moms nice decorations(there were many)
• Breaking almost every light fixture in the house at some point(many over and over again)
• Dropping a gallon of paint down the stairs(I watched it break open spilling paint all over the carpeted stairs it was falling down and then pudding all over the carpet at the bottom. That was not a good day for me)
• I don't remember how, but I put many holes in the walls

I'd be here all day if I listed everything. I am just thankful that Chase hasn't broken very many things. But, who knows, he is only four.