Something to look at while I continue to work on my post about Hawaii

Portrait of a Weenie

Tori took this picture of Jake. He has just spent a life time, or 15 minutes, watching his big brother, Andrew, get his picture taken at a photo studio. Previous to taking this picture he and Paul were playing with the baby toy in the studio lobby. (note of explanation to those who might not have their score card handy: Jake is 4, Paul is 21 and mentally handicapped.)

Another family came in and their little girl wanted to play with the toy, too. It took Tori and I over 5 minutes to convince Paul to get out of the chair so that a real baby could play with the baby toy. Knowing that these particular toys are some of Pauls very favorite toys in the world I bribed him with everything I could think of but it was all to no avail. (food, candy, soda, "I'll tell you a secret", 5 minutes in a video store, another toy, "BECAUSE I SAID SO", etc.) Tori finally whispered something in his ear and he reluctanly got out of the chair so the little girl could play with the toy. (I have no idea what Tori bribed him with but I was actually a little bit relieved to find that he wasn't the one driving the car when we left the mall.)

Tori and I were deep in thought and discussion trying to pick the best picture of Andrew when a certain squeeky voice caught my ear. I turned around and discovered Jake giving the mother of the little girl a tongue lashing because she got his big brother in trouble and now he couldn't play with the toy. I. Couldn't. Believe. My. Ears. I jumped off of my stool and said, "JAKEY!"

This got Tori's attention and she heard what Jake was saying and she, too, jumped off of her stool. We both dove for Jake while trying to tell him that the lady was innocent of all charges but that just made him talk louder and faster. "And we were playing the game and you came in and..." "JAKEY!!! STOP TALKING!" I thought Tori was embarassed enough when Paul wouldn't relinquish the seat but this event bested the previous award winning moment. We wrestled Jake over to our table all the while trying everything short of stuffing a sock in his mouth to get him to stop talking.

We are very fortunate that the mother was very friendly and actually seemed to be amused by being told off by an angry 4 year old. She kept smiling at us and telling us that it was ok...but I promise you...the next time I go to the mall I'm going to bring the duct tape.

Note: The spell check on Blogger is not working so if there are spelling and punctuation errors it's their fault, not mine.