Dirty Andy
Originally uploaded by peachicken.
Is there anything cuter than muddy little boys?
This is a picture of our "Boy Wonder" around the age of three. He is very dirty in this picture as he drove his "Big Wheel through a mud puddle". You know how moms are...you stand the child on the sidewalk to take his picture before you clean him up. Now, some 20 plus years, it's cute and brings to mind other stories of our bouncing baby boy.Did I ever tell you about Boy Wonder's first driving experience? .....also around this same age! One late fall day Mr. Wonderful decides that before winter approaches he needs to add antifreeze to the car. We were living in North Dakota and it gets really cold in the winter.
All the children are outside playing. I'm in the kitchen at the table fixing a meal overlooking the driveway. The two girls are playing by the side of the garage and Boy Wonder is zooming his Big Wheel up and down the driveway.
Mr. Wonderful starts the car, puts it in the park, but forgets to close the driver's side door. He opens the hood (thus blocking his view of our son) and proceeds to add antifreeze to the car.
What little boy isn't attracted to cars? What little boy doesn't love to crawl up in the driver's seat and pretend to drive? (Usually, while the car is off!) Call it an irresistible nuisance but before any of us notice, Boy Wonder is behind the wheel of the car, standing up, turning the steering wheel pretending to drive just like daddy.
I see this scene and immediately run out the door to alert Mr. Wonderful. Just as I reach the porch everything goes into slow motion......I remember watching it unfold and not being able to react fast enough to stop the chain reaction. Boy Wonder knocks the car into drive just as Mr. Wonderful turns to pick up the garden hose. The girls leave to play in the backyard as the car moves forward, headed to the exact location where they had been only moments before. The car crashes into the side of the garage causing damage but no one is injured.
Boy Wonder is delighted and exclaims, "Do it Again, Daddy!" Looking back on the incident it would have been so easy for him to fall out of the car, or run over his dad or his sisters. How quickly this story could have changed from a family memory to a family tragedy.
Boy Wonders holds the record for being the youngest driver in our family. How old were you when you first started driving?
Boy Wonder is delighted and exclaims, "Do it Again, Daddy!" Looking back on the incident it would have been so easy for him to fall out of the car, or run over his dad or his sisters. How quickly this story could have changed from a family memory to a family tragedy.
Boy Wonders holds the record for being the youngest driver in our family. How old were you when you first started driving?
21 comments:
What a story...Thank God it didn't turn into a family tragedy!
I was a kind of normal age when I started to drive. 16. So no exciting story's of getting behind the wheel at 6...lol!
Here from Michele today!
Michele sent me over, Daisy.
It's amazing any of us survive our childhood. Kids can do such... surprising things!
I didn't want to learn to drive, for some odd reason, so it wasn't until I was 17 and had to be able to drive so I could get to work in bad weather, Daisy. In good weather I rode my bike.
Is it really already Monday where you are? Good to know there will be a tomorrow--thanks!
Here via Michele.
I grew up in a country where the driving age was/is 18, like in Europe but it wasn't Europe :) I was busy with college then and I didn't get my driver's license until I was 22, old lady. It's 9:45pm on a sunday still over here, and this time I am here via Michele's (sort of), but you know I know my way to your patch!
That is one dirty little boy!
I drove a little out on the farm in Illinois when I was 15, backed into a post (no damage) and then didn't get my license until seven days before going to college when I was 17. No car until I was almost 21. I haven't taken out any mailboxes or garages, that was the daughter's trick. Mailboxes with the car. Garage windows with the basketball, also getting my back car window as well.
I took drivers ed in highschool, can't remember how old I was, younger than 18.
You have a great memory to remember all the details of your stories. I'm glad a family tragedy was diverted.
Mr. Wonderful always tell me not to let a "few facts" stand in the way of a great story! Boy Wonder has told me on several stories that he had a "different" memory of it. I told him, My blog, my memory! Ha!
Now I get why my dad used to call bath time "car wash"...
Michele sent me. Have a great weekend !
It must be a boy thing. Ethan did the same thing when he was that age too. If we don't believe God watches over us, we just have to look at our little boys. He has to work overtime with some of them:)
I posted about my driving experience before, but here ya go. I don't remember how old I was when it happened. But Mom was always leaving us alone in the car when she went into the store.
She had parked the car in a spot there the front of the car was up higher than the back...slight hill upward.
I jumped into the driver's seat and started "driving" turning the wheel left & right and then I grabbed the gear shift and just like mom switched the gears...into neutral. The car started backing up down hill.
Luckily a man ran over and stuck his head & arm in the open window to put the car back into gear. We only moved about a foot or two.
I'm sure I probably got one of the many "worst whoopins of my life" that day...but I don't remember it at all.
Did mom learn her lesson about leaving me in the car? Nope.
For more about Mom check out my blog.
It's very embarassing to tell but honestly speaking, I don't know how to drive. Very surprising for this generation huh!
Wow!! That's a good one! I can't beat that.
I don't have time for an MM today. Mr. Bug is having car trouble and I have to take his car in.
LBC
My mother has a similar tale about my brother, which I have on tape (given at church) and which one of the MM's I'll devote to that.
A great story--but scary even from this distance. God really protected your whole family.
Oh MY!! Now that's a dirty boy!! LOL
As for his driving adventure, goodness!! Thank heaven for guardian angels!
I started driving at the normal age...but Bubba started at around 10, we lived in the country and his poppy would let him drive his truck in the field...good exprience, because he is a good driver now!
Great memory, mines up!
Oh, my....!!!! How horrifying to see and not be able to do something... *shivering*
Glad that it all went well, pheeew!
The timing of it all! Definitely seems like guardian angels were there! :)
My older son has already been helping with priming the brakes.
Wow, I'm glad everyone was okay! I remember going in reverse down my driveway when I was probably 4 or 5. I bailed out the window and the car made it all the way across the street. Scary.
I tagged you for a meme today, BTW.
Wow! I remember my neighboors kid who was playing in their parked car, which was on a hill above my station wagon. The kid put the car in gear and it slam into my wagon. I was in the yard watering my plants. I yelled for the Dad who was in his yard, luckily the hand brakes on my car held it from rolling too. Or it would have been a disaster.
Thanks for stopping by my MM.
I started driving at the good ole' age of 16 just like most people. I was never good at parallel parking and still am not good. When I was taking drivers training I hit the car in front of me and the car behind me..OOOPS!! Well to this day I try NEVER to park in that position if I can help it. My MM is up today even though i am knee deep in boxes and tiredness.!!!
Reminds me of the time when I was 8 months pregnant with my second girl. I pulled up in front of the gas station door and left the car running because it was cold and I only needed milk. My 2 1/2 year old crawled out of her car seat and into the front seat and put the car in drive. Fortunately no one was injured and there was no damage. She navigated the car out of the driveway of a gas station and up a hill before a man ran and jumped in the driver's side and brought her and the car back.
That's a lot of mud, but our puppy, Mister Puppy, one of his middle names is "pig pen"
Post a Comment