Lost in the Little Middle

Oh my poor Little Middle.  Always lurking in the shadows of his older Ninja who seems to always succeed at everything he does (wonder where he gets THAT from) and Baby that simply robs all the attention. 

My poor Little Middle.  Always trying to break out and stand out in this crowd of Yahoos, but consistently living in the shadows that plague the middle children. 

My poor precious Little Middle.  If he only knew how I'm over the moon about him.

But he keeps striving.  Keeps working hard to have a story to tell.  Something fascinating about himself to share with the people he does life with. 

And usually that's not too hard to do.  Because when you have 4 Yahoos and lots of testosterone it doesn't take much to create a story.

Take for instance just this Monday.  A typical Monday.  Our schedule was peppered with swim lessons and cucumber picking and frog petting and, of course, cops and robbers.  And no good game of cops and robbers is complete without a total smackdown taking place.  A few years ago when I heard children being thrown against the wall I usually ran to check on them.  But I'm more experienced these days and I now wait to listen for cries of pain.  Note I say cries of pain and not cries of anger, embarassment, or aggravation.  Granted these are, at times, difficult to differentiate but I have had a lot of practice.  A LOT of practice.  And I have to say I feel rather skilled in the fine art of Cry Identification. 

Moving on.

So I'm waiting for the alarms to signal telling me to come rescue an injured party.   Sure enough, they signal.  And it's Little Middle.  It's always Little Middle.  But this time it's an actual injury.  With real live blood!  Usually I just get the regular ol' bump on the head or punch on the gut.  I have to say I was a little excited. 

Is that bad?  Don't answer that.

Anyway, rushing him to the bathroom to avoid a carpet mess didn't calm him down any.  So now I have blood and a screaming kid.  I mean two screaming kids.  Because Ninja apparantly at this point realized there was a real possibility that things were not going to end up well for him when everything was said and done.  So he just starts repeating what we all start repeating when we are desperate to avoid a punishment:

I didn't mean to!   I didn't mean to!

I don't say anything to him.  I let him panic for a little while.  It's good for his soul.  Trust me.  Anyhow, a few wet papertowels later and a calming word or two and we have a child who is relatively satisfied. 



But do you see what I see in this picture?  I mean, beside this handsome hunk of burning love, I do notice that we have a dangling tooth that has moved right smack dab into the middle of his mouth.  Well, we have GOT to do something about that.  I can't be looking at THAT for another week.  And Little Middle notices too.  And because the last time he lost his tooth you might remember that he lost, um, two at the same time, he decided that that would be a tradition for him.  He would be known as the boy who looses teeth two at a time. 

I gave him the whole 'no one in our family has ever lost two teeth on the same day, let alone two sets of teeth that way.'  Well, that did it.  He was bound and determined to get that sucker out.

And several tugs and a few tears later look what happened

If that's not the look of accomplishment I don't know what is.

And now my poor Little Middle isn't so poor any more.  Because the Tooth Fairy unloaded two bucks for this kid's hard work.  Well, not the actual Tooth Fairy.  The actual Tooth Fairy had had a fairly traumatic day and went to bed early.  So she called in the sub.  Who didn't know that the children like to keep their teeth and so you just put the money in the bag with the teeth.  So in the morning when the teeth were gone and we had to go 'hunting' for them it was a little chaotic.  But it's okay. And the Sub has learned the rules now and so the Tooth Fairy can take more vacation days. 

I digress.

Little Middle.  I'm so happy for him.  And if you see him he loves for you to make him say

Simple Simon sells seashells by the seashore.

because he heard Opie do it on an episode of Andy after he had lost his two front teeth. 

And Little Middle.  If you see him.  He loves for you to ask him to tell you a story.  So sit with him a spell.  He's a good storyteller. 

And Little Middle.  No matter how far down in the middle of the pack he is, he's the apple of my eye.  And not only mine, but we have this promise tucked in the middle of God's precious Letter to us, that He treasures him, and cherishes him, and can't get enough of him.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings

Psalm 17:8

And so I hope that I will every day, in every way testify and instill in all my precious Yahoos how deep the Father's love for them really is.  And that no matter where they rank in this world's social pecking order they will never go unnoticed by the One who sets this world in motion.