Joe. He's 8 now.

Joe turned eight yesterday. As a birthday present to himself, he pulled the second of his top front teeth the day before. Sadly, our absent-minded tooth fairy neglected his duties, and Joe still hasn't received payment for this monumental tooth.

Not to let this little hiccup in life ruin his birthday, Joe turned his attention to decorating the cake for his party:

 Behold, a three (or six) wheeled monster truck.

I know. It does not look like Joe will grow up to be a modern day Rembrandt. A Pollack, maybe, but really, art isn't his thing at this point in life.

A while back, he came to me asking for newspaper. That spidey-mom-sense-tingle made me ask what he wanted it for. He wanted to start a fire. Further inquiry revealed that he had made a house out of a box, complete with working chimney, and wanted to create a "house fire". He had the whole setup ready in the middle of the gravel driveway (so that the fire wouldn't spread), his big water gun at the ready to put the fire out, and a roll of toy gun caps taped to the "ceiling" for added excitement. After the lecture on never starting a fire without mom or dad around, we postponed the mini, controlled house-fire to a day that wasn't so windy.

Lest you think I am raising some future arsonist, let me assure you there are other things on his mind. Last week, I was working in the house when Joe showed up in his work clothes, determined to help. I was wiring up outlets, so I thought Joe would like to put the wall plates on after I was done. This kept him happy for about a minute, but then he wanted to know how how the outlets worked and how to wire them up. After a quick explanation of the different wires and what they do, I showed him which wire to hook up where, and he (figuratively) shoved me aside and went to work. 

You have to admire his determination. 12 gauge wire isn't the easiest to work with, but he struggled with it until he was done. All that was needed from me was a little tightening of the screws. After a few of these outlets, I showed him to the guest room, where lighter gauge wire and push-in connections would be easier to work on. He wired up all the outlets in that room. (Please don't be afraid to come stay at our place. We checked his work to make sure the house won't burn down.)

All this talk of electricity got Joe to thinking, and he came to me with an idea for an experiment. He wanted to hook a wire up to a battery to see if it would glow red. I explained that a light bulb is exactly what he was talking about, and after failing with a 1.5 volt battery, we got it to work with a 9 volt.

He was thrilled and carried his battery and light bulb around for the next two days to show every one his light.

So, here you have a glimpse of Joe at eight. Let's try not to look too closely at the morning grumpiness and whining [he's gotten good at 'humph'] and critical spirit. Hopefully those negatives will be tamed and reshaped with grace. Let's focus on that curious kid that likes building and inventing things and figuring out the way things work. He is kind to the animals, but wreaks havoc on imaginary zombies. He still loves his mom... still wants to be a race car driver, still doesn't like meat.

And, for some reason, Joe likes bunnies. (Will this fact embarrass him when he's 18? Let's see...)