Mending: Boy's T-Shirt Edition

I love my sonny boy Jack.  But that child is sneaky and independent, and he currently has a li'l listening problem, manifested by the inability to hear and follow specific commands.  Whisper, "Daddy wants to take you for a tractor ride," and I'm quite sure he would come running from the farthest corner of the house.  He has been sleeping with Jason's Fastline magazine for the past few nights, and can name almost all the farm equipment in it.  He is such a boy, and I love him head to squeezy buns to toes. 

A few things we commonly hear from him (3 1/2):
(wailing) "I missed some parts!!!" when he is stuck in his crib and the others are watching TV.
"I meeda go potty."
"Fank-you Jesus for dirt."
"Owen/Heh-wyn, you're MEAN!" (translated--"You're not letting me have my way.")

And one trademark morning call he is outgrowing:
"Mommy/Daddy, I'n ah-WAY-yake!!!!!  I'n ready for BREAKdust!!!"

I stenciled another shirt for him, because I want to do all I can to capture his heart while he is still my baby.  He wasn't completely happy with the shirt, which puzzled me until I realized all his heavy equipment toys are made by John Deere.  He was especially foul when another kid called him "Cat." We told him the other boy was just reading his shirt, but he took it as an offense, and probably has filed a grudge anyway. Oh well. 

 

He is enrolled in Atmore's HIPPY program for 3 year olds, and when our instructor came at the beginning of the school year to give me his supplies and his first week of lessons, he immediately opened his school box and grabbed his! very! own! scissors!  My mom alarm clanged to red alert, and I warned him a few times to be very careful and not cut anything, as did the instructor, but I was too polite to get up and remove them from his wiggly fingers.  Two seconds later, he had a hole in his brand new Target clearance rack t-shirt.  Growl.

This irritated woman put the shirt on her mending pile and went about her business as usual for four months before thinking of and completing a five-minute solution. 

Our prayers for this kid, aside from physical protection and all, is that he would set his heart on God, and put his independence to good use, refusing to blindly submit to influential peers, authorities and ideas that don't reflect truth.  In the meantime, we're working with his "hearing issues," and keeping our sense of humor about him.