[caption id="attachment_212" align="alignleft" width="159" caption="Jonathan after a soccer game when he was 7 years old."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Jonmuddysoccer.jpg"><img class="wp-image-212 " title="Jonmuddysoccer" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Jonmuddysoccer-159x300.jpg" alt="" width="159" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

A 3-year-old boy at <a href="http://www.palsattrinity.org" target="_blank">PALS</a> (I'll call him Caleb) locked his baby sister, and the car keys, in the family car, earlier this week.  His mother (I'll call her Ruthann) had dropped her keys on the front seat of the car, before strapping her baby in the car seat.

Unaware that Caleb had pushed the lock button on the car door, she closed that door and walked around the car to buckle Caleb in his car seat. And found that door locked. . . all the doors locked, with the keys and the baby inside.

Ruthann had REALLY meant to replace her back-up set of keys, which Caleb had "lost" the week before. (She replaced them IMMEDIATELY after this incident.)

Two fire trucks and five firemen arrived with flashing lights, to extricate the baby.  Caleb greeted them with "Hi, guys!!" and the firemen gave Caleb high fives.

Talk about rewarding a little boy for his mischievous behavior! Ruthann will be fortunate indeed if Caleb doesn't repeat this stunt, hoping to achieve similar success.
<p style="text-align: left;">Ruthann shared her "embarrassing" story with me and another mother at PALS yesterday.  And then I shared some stories about Isaac, one of my favorite 3-year-olds, also a child at PALS - with our son Jonathan, twenty years ago.</p>


[caption id="attachment_794" align="aligncenter" width="398" caption="Isaac standing, watching Jonathan slide in the mud in front of our house. They were six years old."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacmud2.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-794 " title="JonIsaacmud2" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacmud2.jpg" alt="" width="398" height="418" /></a>[/caption]

Several more moms stopped to listen, as I told about the day Isaac locked himself and the car keys in his house. His mother had carried a load of "mother stuff" - those things that mothers end up carting around with them - to the car.  She returned for Isaac and her purse, with the car keys.  To find the house locked.
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacMud.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-787 aligncenter" title="JonIsaacMud" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacMud.jpg" alt="" width="353" height="538" /></a></p>


[caption id="attachment_794" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Jonathan and Isaac the day they graduated from Rome High. Both boys wore the National Honor Society stole. Isaac was valedictorian."]</dt><dd class="wp-caption-dd">Jonathan and Isaac LOVED mud. They still went "mudding" when they were teenagers. They are both now 23-years old, college graduates and fine men.</dd></dl></div>
She knocked on the door and Isaac peered out the nearest window, waved and grinned at her. She went from door to door, around the house, looking for an unlocked one or an open window. No luck. Back to the front door where she knocked and Isaac waved and smiled at her again. Around the house again, looking for a door or window where she could break in.

Before breaking a window, she went across the street to a neighbor's house. That retired gentleman returned with her, rang the door bell and Isaac promptly opened the door for him.

Isaac's mother had an extra house key made THAT DAY, and found a place to hide it, outside their home.
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter"><dl id="attachment_791" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 490px;"><dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacGrad.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-791 " title="JonIsaacGrad" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacGrad.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="249" /></a>[/caption]

And, I reminded the 5 or 6 mothers now listening to my stories, Isaac survived to grow up, was his high school valedictorian and is now a grad student at Harvard.

And, then, I told the story of the day Isaac slipped through the bars at the local Burger King playground. His mother was, of course, not small enough to slip through that fence.  By the time she raced into and through the fast food restaurant and outside, she found Isaac standing in the middle lane of the five-lane thoroughfare in front of the BK, with traffic stopped in both directions.

[caption id="attachment_801" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Matthew and Andrew on a playground in Carol Stream, Illinois, circa 1985."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewMattPlayground.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-801" title="AndrewMattPlayground" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewMattPlayground-300x216.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="216" /></a>[/caption]

But, adding my refrain to the verses of my story, he survived to grow up, was the valedictorian at Rome High, and is now in grad school at Harvard.

"You canNOT believe how much better that makes me feel!" Ruthann told us. "Caleb will survive to grow up? He'll graduate from high school? Caleb can be so wide open, so inquisitive, sometimes people - especially mothers with quiet little girls - look at me as if something is wrong with me as a mother, that I have such an active boy. Or that something is wrong with Caleb that he is active and exploring.

[caption id="attachment_806" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="Lillian (his cousin), Hunt (his best man), Isaac and Aaron (who also attended PALS with Jonathan) at Jessica and Jonathan&#39;s wedding last June."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-806 " title="LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="281" /></a>[/caption]

"I don't want to squash the joy he finds in exploration, that excitement and curiosity. He is sweet and eager to please. If he gets too rowdy, I find it easy to redirect his energy.

"He is just all-boy!"

As a mother with four sons, I can assure you, that is a GOOD thing.