That's our Boy

The first phone call on Tuesday came at 6:29 a.m. It was Carter's afterschool babysitter. I thought maybe she was calling to say she was sick. But no, she was calling to give Carter grief about the Packer-Viking game.

Normally she wouldn't pick on a 10-year-old, but in this case she thought he deserved a little payback.

Apparently the day before our boy was talking quite a bit of smack, including but not limited to, a monetary bet and a statement like: "Wait 'til you see the paper tomorrow morning. The headline will say Vikings 1-0, Packers 0-1." Sheesh. I don't know where he gets that cocky attitude from!

Yesterday was also the day for Carter to present his items that represent his "history," who he is. Since one of the items was of the purple and yellow nature, I thought the wake-up call might be a sign of how the day was going to go for Carter. Thankfully it wasn't. Carter said his presentation went well.

This is what he stuffed into his Adidas shoebox (he got no help from me on this) -- and a condensed version of what he had to say about it:

#80 Cris Carter Vikings jersey: He told the class this represents the fact he's a Vikings fan and how he got the name Carter. (Well that's not exactly true. I saw the name in one of those "30,000 Baby Names" books and liked it. And being a Vikings fan, I certainly didn't fight the connection.) I asked if anyone teased him about. He said, "No, I wore the jersey the day before so they sort of had a clue about what was coming."

Bible: He said this represents his religion, has all the stories about Jesus, and "symbolizes the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Hmm, not bad.

Family picture: He said he told about where Daddy and I work, where the big boys goes to school, etc. I'm sure he mentioned his kitty, too.

Coin collection: Carter brought just a sampling of his coin collection, showing them the coins his big brother Casey brought back from Germany, along with some other unique coins in his collection -- including a train-flattened penny and a B.C. coin from Greece. The kids thought that was cool.

Baseball trophy: He told them the trophy not only symbolizes his love for baseball but "represents teamwork and effort." Wow. That's good.

We're just happy to see that his moments of wisdom are not limited to cocky wise cracks. But that's our boy!