Mr. Fix It

I love Mark.  You know I love Mark.  (I keep reminding myself of that every time he breaks a favorite Christmas decoration.)

I have a small collection of these Norman Rockwell ornaments of kids playing in the snow.  They are on a little shelf.  Mark knocked this one over.

(Adam wondered how the boys--without their limbs--got up to the top of the hill to sled down.  You've got to admire how happy they seem.)

I was cleaning off the kitchen counter and wondering if I should try to glue the pieces back together or throw them away.  My dad would glue them back together.  Then I remembered mini-Mark.

"Mark," I called up the stairs, "I have a job for you..."

His red head appeared over the landing.

"Glue this back together," I said.

I got him some super glue.  I told him the only rule was that he couldn't glue his fingers together and he couldn't glue the ornament (or his fingers) to the table.  He smiled at me but he really wanted to get to work.  He had a gleam in his eye.

"First figure out the best way to do it," I cautioned, seeing how excited he was to get started.

"I already have," he said.  "I'm missing a piece, yesterday I looked all over the floor for it but I can't find it."

Mark had been planning how to glue it together all along.  Just waiting for me to catch up and cough up the super glue I guess.

He glued bits together then let them dry then put it together little by little.  How does he intrinsically know how to do stuff like that?

I don't know but it's a good skill to have for someone who breaks things.

I could hardly tell where the seams were:

Everybody's back on the shelf:

Mark has a way of salvaging everything.  You can't know how many times he turns a frustrating day around by insisting on kissing me between every math problem or every song he plays when he's supposed to be practicing the piano.  It's hard not to be happy when you're basking in the bigness of Mark's affection.

Our kids take turns giving each other Christmas presents.  This year, Emma will get a gift from Mark.  He decided to give her one of his toys so he can buy himself a newer better one.  I said, "It sounds like you want to give Emma a gift you want, not something she'd want."

Then I made a few suggestions.

Mark said, "It sounds like you want me to give Emma a gift you want, not something she'd want."

I said, "Except she told me she wanted those things."

Mark, Mark.

Then he came up with the best possible and perfect gift for Adam that I'd never have thought of on my own.

I'll keep him.