Lessons from a Nine-Year-Old

Dear Lord; Happy Friday Father!

Today Lord, we’re celebrating at the Malmstrom home.  Nine years ago today at 12:23pm, You Blessed us by bringing Aidan Patrick Malmstrom into our lives.  🙂

I love both my children dearly Father, and over the years each of them has brought me unique perspective, as well as taught me some valuable lessons.  In February 2005, I wrote a blog post for another site about my experiences taking care of Aidan while Shannon and Jonathan were at A.I. Dupont Hospital for a few days.  It described the unique little boy he was at age 2, and some of the things he’d taught me at that point in time:

Lessons from a Two-Year-Old

Over the last several days, I have been privileged to be instructed in the ways of the world by a mind so uncluttered that my perspectives have likely been forever changed. I’m speaking of course, of my two-year-old son Aidan.

It all started when Jonathan (my older son, or as some know him Mini-Me) was kept at the AI DuPont Hospital for Children for a three-day stay. Jonathan was born with a rare and serious blood disease called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) which nearly took him from us shortly after he was born. Thanks to the responsive and meticulous care of the Hematology and Oncology staff at AI, he recently celebrated his 5th birthday with us in December. However, as this disease is not clinically curable, whenever Jonathan develops any inexplicable or significant medical symptoms he’s carefully checked for any potential re-involvement of the ailment. Therefore, when he started showing flu symptoms and his blood counts were suspiciously low last week, back to AI he went. With Shannon staying close to Jonathan’s side, my attentions were now redirected to care for our younger son (and future NFL linebacker), Aidan.

To any of you that don’t know us, my wife and I very definitely have his-and-hers children. Jonathan, in a nutshell, is me. I understand nearly everything he does and why he does it. Aidan however, is a male version of Shannon with a slightly destructive twist. Don’t get me wrong, I love both my children to no end. However, sometimes I have problems relating to the thought processes that dictate Aidan’s actions. He’s a wonderful child with an incredibly warm heart and a seemingly endless reserve of energy. It’s just that his methods for getting from point A to point B sometimes serve to confuse me completely. Therefore, while I was in sole custody of this little enigma I took the opportunity to carefully follow and analyze some of his daily routines. From this, I learned some important things.

Let’s call this list “Everything I need to know, I learned from my two year old” (Ok, so it’s not terribly original, but you get the reference.)

1. An object is not necessarily made from the sum of it’s component parts. In fact, it’s very likely that if you smash it repeatedly into something else, it will have a whole new set of parts you knew nothing about.

2. Poop is funny stuff. In fact, it’s even funnier if you squish it around until it’s coming out of every seam of the diaper trying to contain it.

3. A child’s hearing ability is inversely proportional to how badly they really want to do something they aren’t supposed to.

4. An item’s original intention is never as interesting as the myriad of things you can make it do outside those boundaries.

5. The word “No” can be an entire language onto itself if said with varied volumes, tones and facial expressions.

6. Perpetual Motion can be achieved through the right balance of chocolate milk and mac-and-cheese.

7. Computer wires look exactly like the ropes that “Dora the Explorer” uses to swing across rivers and such.

8. Drawing and coloring should never be restricted to something as unimaginative as paper.

9. Do everything with a sickeningly cute smile and 9 out of 10 times you’ll get away with it. On the 10th time, run faster than daddy.

And I’m learning more every day…

God I love my kids.

~Phil Malmstrom

Therefore Father, to mark Aidan’s Birthday today I thought I’d share some additional “chunks of wisdom” that he’s enlightened me with since that time.

Lessons from a Nine-Year-Old

1. Laundry baskets are far too structured an idea for truly free thinkers.

2. With the right combination of Lego parts and some cheese quesadillas, you can in fact create sentient life.

3. The time required to shower is directly proportional to how much hot water is available and how many good songs are playing on the radio.

4. The response “One more minute” is actually a phrase apparently derived from some other language meaning “When I feel like it…”.

5. When you have HUGE dimples, you can get out of amazingly difficult situations.

6. If you want to stay up a little bit later than regular bedtime, the phrase to use on dad is “Can I just go read my Bible for a while please?”.

7. With the proper amount of barbecue sauce, almost anything is edible.

8. The word “no” is simply the beginning of the negotiation process.

9. If negotiations don’t go well and finally break down, it’s still good to be able to outrun daddy.

And I’m still learning more every day.  🙂

Heavenly Father,

I thank You Lord, for Blessing our family those nine years ago by placing Your child Aidan into our care.  He’s a kind, smart, fun little boy Father, and I feel privileged to be his earthly father.  Please continue to watch over him Lord, and guide him to grow into the godly man that I know he can be.

In Jesus’ Name we pray,

Amen.

~Phather Phil