It's a hard BUB Life

This is yet another story of my son, nicknamed Bub. We were at a local restaurant having dinner one Friday night recently. I must say that people who put those slot machines disguised as "Crane games" are very clever. In this particular restaurant, the crane machine is in the back right before you get to the restrooms. So if you use the facilities here, you have to pass it twice, doubling their chances that you may decide to lose $1, not a quarter, not two quarters, but $1 per try. This particular crane machine has two sides, one has plush toy characters and the other has spiky rubber balls that average at a size a little bigger than a softball. As anyone who has a 4-year-old knows, he will inevitably have to use the bathroom at least once, which means he will be asking at least twice to have a dollar and play the disguised pachinko machine. Now, fortunately for me, my son is actually not too shabby at these machines. So, back to my story... Bub states he needs to go to r

On occasions, I will decide to pick up a pack of chocolate pudding at the grocery store. Much like my father before me, I can have a bit of a sweet tooth. On one particular occasion when about the time Bub had about two teeth coming in and just starting to walk, I had gotten some pudding cups and decided to let Bub try some. He was walking around the house playing with toys and exploring. I think we had something on the TV that he was watching off and on. My wife was working at the kitchen table and I was sitting in the recliner with a laptop on my lap working. I had my feet up, and I had put the pudding cup on the coffee table next to me. In my peripheral vision, I see Bub walking along the couch looking at me but not really trying to get my attention, hanging on to the couch while he walks. I see him disappear behind my laptop screen to where my feet or up in the recliner. The next thing I know, I feel a sharp pain in my big toe. I jump up with a start, toss my laptop over next to me

My son reminds me of many things. My wife and I are constantly seeing physical traits and personality quirks that remind us of ourselves or family members. My son also has somethings about him between his appearance and his actions that remind us so much of a cartoon character. From an early age he appeared to have comedic timing down. For example. One of the first times we took him to my wife's grandparents house, we put him in his walker and turned him loose to walk and play around the living room. As we are talking and joking about keeping him, my wife's grandmother said "Well, I guess the warranty has run out on him so you have to keep him." Immediately after she said this, he stops playing and gets really quiet while looking at us. We stop talking to look at him, and suddenly he starts crying his eyes out, as if he understood what we were saying. It was the funniest and most pitiful thing I had seen from my son to that point. I say to that poi