Human Tornado

Saturday was tons of fun. Our family friend Melanie and her son Travis came up to visit Rex and I. We had a really fun day of hanging out and going to a local apple orchard. Travis is...ummm...crazy. He is five years old, but he has the energy of an entire kindergarten class of five year olds. I must highlight for you some of the examples of his craziness:

1. Within ten minutes of arriving, he broke two of Elsie's toys. They are repairable with duct tape, but still. He is like a little human tornado. He tried to body slam Elsie a few times, but she got away.

2. While he was wrestling with Rex, Mel and I were taking the opportunity to talk and catch up on things. All of a sudden we hear Travis say to Rex, "I am going to kick your ASS!!!!" Mel and I immediately tried not to laugh, but it was really hard. She said, "TRAVIS! You don't hear me talk like that, do you?!" to which he replied, "Yes I do!" If you knew Melanie, you would know the hilarity of this statement. I doubt she has ever said a swear word in her entire life.

3. When we were in the car to go to the apple orchard, I noticed that there were lots of brown stains on the ceiling in the back seat. I asked Travis, "what are those stains on the ceiling?" He replied as if I was SO dumb for not already knowing the answer, "Hot chocolate." If he would have known the word "duh" I bet he would have added it. Obviously it was hot chocolate. I should have known.

4. While at the apple orchard, Travis liked to go play in the kids section while Mel and I sat and talked (Rex, unfortunately, had to stay home to study for the GRE). One of Travis's favorite things to do was to ride the little kid tractors. One time we looked up, and some poor one year old had fallen into Travis's path. He was fervently trying to run over the baby with his tractor, and the baby looked very scared. Mel immediately screamed, "TRAVIS!! STOP TRYING TO RUN OVER THAT KID!" Mel and the baby's dad got to the scene at about the same time, and they both hurriedly pulled their kids off of the tractor track.

5. There was lots of caution tape at the orchard to block off lines where people could line up for the different attractions. I don't think that Travis can read since he is only five, but he must have thought that "Caution" actually meant "Rip me" because that is what he did to every strip of caution tape that we came across. I am telling you - human tornado.

6. One time as Mel and I were walking along chatting, Mel saw Travis tip over an orange cone. She turned and said, "Travis! Pick up that cone!" Then we looked...and as if we were in a movie, we suddenly saw that the entire row of orange cones had ALL been knocked down by Travis. We had to go back and pick them all up again.

7. Travis made a new friend while we waited in line for the train ride. This child was also five. They got along pretty well, until one point when Travis backed the kid into some bushes and wouldn't let him out. The friend said, "Hey! Let me out of here!!" and Mel and I made Travis let his prisoner go.

8. We went back to the kid tractors (probably a poor choice in retrospect), and Mel and I got to chatting again. When we looked up, Travis was BEATING his tractor with the steering wheel that he pulled off of it. Mel went up to him and said, "Honey, that one's broken." Travis replied with "Oh!" and promptly went to find another tractor. I guess he hadn't considered the fact that maybe beating a tractor with its own steering wheel would be ineffective in making it work.

Even though I have some crazy stories, Travis isn't 100% destructo-boy. He can be cute too. Case in point: when MSU won their football game against U of M Saturday night, Travis said, "Mommy, how many years until I can go to Michigan State??" Batten down the hatches, East Lansing. You have thirteen years until Travis arrives. :-)