A Peak into the Mind of Darren. (Read at your own risk).

I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. Darren hasn't even left yet and I'm already missing him.

I was browsing on our computer today and found a stockpile of his files - things he's found online and pictures he's 'doctored'. The following is a very small sampling:

Darren adds his thoughts to Larissa's heart-wrenching picture after she hit her head on the trampoline. He's always been a tender soul.














Darren has embraced this motto fully.













I'm sensing sub-conscious anger/dominance issues in Darren. By the way - what ARE those things in the background chasing this poor, innocent kitty?






Darren labeled this self-photo "Darren the pimp".








Darren's misfortune while living in Texas. He put dish soap in the dishwasher. This picture makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside while maniacal glee envelopes my very soul.







I have no words for this picture





Darren is fun. He is creative. Clever. Smart. Strong-willed. Talented. There were (are) times that I wanted to pull my hair out because of him (still do!)... because he wouldn't (won't) do things the way I wanted (want) them done!

Proof:

• One time I went outside to find him cutting strange shapes out of our shrubbery in the front yard.
• He made an audio tape of himself spewing very hideous and scary-sounding monster noises. He left it under his sisters' bunk bed while they were going to sleep. We spent the rest of the evening trying to console two screeching and sobbing girls.
• I found a dead snake in my freezer the very first week of my marriage to Todd. Apparently Darren, age 10, found roadkill he wanted to skin.
• One evening Todd and I came home from a blessed night away from the kids. We worried about what we would find as we put Darren in charge. (eek.) We found that our entire main floor was riddled with a 'carnival'. Games, treats, puzzles, etc. Each of the kids had their own 'stations' of which they were in charge. Todd and I had to 'pay' to play each of the games. Todd and I went to bed broke....well, more broke than usual.
• Darren's favorite stunt was hiding in the coat closet right as guests came over. After about 5 minutes, he would pound on the closet door and yell "Mom? Dad? Can I come out now?"
• Once, when I had kidney stones, he rode his bike to the grocery store and spent his quarters on the 'claw machine'. He came home with about 5 stuffed animals of various shapes and sizes.
• When he was 12, he mailed Todd and I a bill for his allowance.

It can never be said that Darren is boring. I found and kept this little poem when Darren was younger. It fit him to the T! Now that he is older I see endless possibilities for him. Darren loves the world and everything in it. The world is his playground. Go for it, Darren!

The Noncomformist

Every family has at least one: the child who will not conform, the rebel, the loner. As a pre-schooler, he's the one who gets locked in restrooms because he stayed behind to find out where the water went when you pushed down the handle, who gets his arm stuck in a piece of construction pipe, who rejects store-bought toys in favor of making tunnels out of old oatmeal boxes.

In school, he gets check marks for daydreaming, for not being neat, for not working to capacity. In his pre-occupation with other things, he is unaware that he drives his family crazy, arriving late for dinner every night and wearing his underwear (or dinosaur suit) to bed to save time in the morning.

As he grows older, there aren't enough weekends for his projects. In the garage is his "pumping heart," devised out of plastic sandwich bags, tubing and cake coloring. Cluttering the bedroom are the remains of his puppet show.

Parents are awed by genius, content with an average child, compassionate toward the slow learner. But the child who is none of these only puzzles, confuses and tries their patience. "What's to become of him?" they ask each other.

True, he is accident-prone because he daydreams, and he maintains a closet that the insurance company refuses to insure. But he reminds us that life is a precious gift to be lived to its fullest. And as Henry David Thoreau said, "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is becuase he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears.

~Erma Bombeck