Third Time a Charm?

[porphyry]

Last night Madeline kept antagonizing Andrew while Andrew was showering. I was at work, but according to Malkhos, Madeline kept taking Andrew's Godzilla monsters (of which he has too many here to name) and pretending like the monster was attacking Andrew while he was in the shower. Andrew would shriek, then Madeline would shriek more loudly, and it kept going like this--the two of them trying to out-shriek each other--until it occurred to Malkhos he'd better intervene.

Malkhos asked Andrew why Andrew would want to court such danger and maybe slip and fall in the shower and perhaps even sustain another broken leg.

Malkhos said, "Would you want another broken leg?"

"Which leg?" Andrew asked.

"How should I know?" Malkhos said.

"Because if it was my left leg, I wouldn't mind," Andrew replied. "The evil part of me is in my right side, and I don't want that broken."

Malkhos reported this to me this morning as we were driving to St. Louis so I could get a special ultrasound to see if this new baby had any markers for genetic problems, particularly Down Syndrome (at my age, the odds are 1:53). I thought Andrew's explanation was kind of funny; Malkhos thought it indicated Andrew needs a therapist.

"Oh, he's only seven," I replied. "If this occurred in conjunction with him torturing animals, I might be more concerned about it."

"Well, if I ever have occasion to write a crazy character in a book, Andrew will be the model," Malkhos said.

Later, I reported to Malkhos that at least I had been told that this baby had no markers for genetic disease after careful examination of the heart, nuchal folds, and the bridge of the nose. I also told him the baby appeared to have two arms, two legs, and ten fingers and toes. "At least I know I'm not having a frog," I said. "To add to your worries about our offspring."

I think it's rather admirable that Andrew knows he has good and bad impulses and that they come from within rather from without. Now we just have to try to teach him that self-control of the bad is what he wants. I also told Malkhos that if our two children are crazy, maybe we'll get it right this time, ha ha.

Comments

[vonjunzt.livejournal.com]

How ridiculous. He should know by his age that his evil would lie in the sinister side.

Once, when my much younger brother was in grade school, I said in his presence of someone, "Ah, you're left handed. How sinister." He repeated the phrase to his left-handed teacher, who was not amused.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Well I know about the sinister side. Being hopelessly left-handed myself, despite all of Sister Althea's attempts to break me of this in the first grade, I should have explained this to Andrew that he's got this mixed up.

Isn't "right" in Latin roughly related to dexterous?

[benicek.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry until he starts torturing humans.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I probably won't worry even then, depending upon whom he's torturing.

Malkhos always has been a mountain maker out of proverbial molehills. He takes things Andrew says far too seriously.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I keep repeating it because I like this quote from Little Man Tate, a quite well-made film featuring Jodie Foster as the mother of an exceptionally talented child that its teacher wants to send to therapy for being a misunderstood (by her) math genius, to which Jodie as the boy´s mother simply replies:
"Intelligence is not a disease!"
Sounds as if your children were perfectly normal kids (I worry more about those that don´t know how to play at all and can´t walk backwards since they never practise balance etc. through games) with perhaps a tad more phantasy and ideas than others provide. Your offspring may even have inherited this from their (ahem) parents. Glad to hear, you are not having a frog, next time!

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. What Malkhos probably doesn't realize is that half of what Andrew says is probably some Andrewized version of something Malkhos told him that was far too complex for the child to comprehend in the first place.

Yes, it was quite a relief to know I'm not gestating an amphibian! :)

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Yes, "nuchal fold" is far less threatening than it sounds. It's just a fold of skin at the back of the neck. Apparently, a marker for babies with genetic disease is a thick nuchal fold. The technician told me that if the measurement is above 3, follow up would be advised. This baby's measured at 1, which was very reassuring. The heart and bridge of nose looked all right, too.

Andrew is hilarious. Malkhos just needs to take him the right way.