"Jekyll's and Hydes" (and of course, grandchildren)

Tony and Diana dropped by yesterday for a brief visit, along with their two boys, (my grandchildren), Trenton and Caleb. Every year in October they come to Ellis to go to the "Cottage Lane pumpkin patch" wherein you take a hay-rack ride out into the wild, largely un-tamed, areas of Ellis Kansas in order to pick your own pumpkin. This is not only great fun for the kids, but also gives you the opportunity to pay about twice as much for a pumpkin as you would have if you'd just bought one at the store. Last year Kristy and I went with them to this gala event, but this year I missed the phone call because I was working on my old truck out back and Kristy was in Hays visiting family. They stopped at our house shortly after noon to visit grandpa and show me the pumpkins that the two boys picked out "all by themselves"! During this visit I started noticing how Trenton,(3 years old), and his brother Caleb (thirteen months), have totally different personalities. Trenton has an "out-going" type of personality, and can literally "melt" your heart with his little bright eyes and antics, whereas Caleb tends to not want to be "bothered" with any type of human contact coming from any source other than his parents. Trenton will come flying up to you at speeds ( which are to this day un-recordable by our current "radar technology"), just to give you a big hug, and possibly recite a huge portion of the "Gettysburg address" in your ear. Caleb, on the other hand, seems to have little concern for the Gettysburg address, and in the back of my mind, I can see him standing there, less than two feet tall and in a diaper, pointing a tiny index finger at me and saying, ( in a husky voice), something like "Listen Gramps, the ONLY reason I'm not kicking your ass right now is because I don't want to break my parole and end up back in the Big House"! Of course I love all of my grandchildren equally, I just have to marvel at how two kids raised together in the exact same environment can have such distinct personality differences. A couple weeks ago I was pulling these two boys in their "Radio Flyer" wagon around Hays and to the playground at the school. They had a blast as long as they were both in the wagon at the same time, but when Trenton would get out of it temporarily to perform some type of mundane task,( such as breaking the sound barrier, or performing open heart surgery on a Koala bear), Caleb would immediately turn "serious" again, and stare up at me from the wagon as if the only reason he wasn't calling 911 at this very minute to report me for "slightly-inebriated wagon propulsion" was that he had inadvertently left his cell phone on the kitchen counter, next to his car keys and his devised plan for taking over the world next year. I always have a great time with all my grandkids, and in closing this Sunday's blog, I would just like to give a little "sound" advice to Trenton and Caleb, regarding the future! Trenton: If you want to be able to someday tell the stories of how you used to be able to beat your brother up and take his "Tonka" toys, you should probably be actively doing that right now, rather than reading this! Next year will probably be too late! Caleb: Uh,,,,,,,,look, I'm your grandpa, BUDDY! This whole thing is just for fun! It's a future "Humor column"! You CAN take a joke, Right? Have a great Sunday everyone!