Sweet and Scary Emmett

Broken Disk:

Today Emmett managed to break his fourth Wii U disk in about a year.  Tyler got Splatoon for his birthday weeks ago, and Emmett loves playing it.  When no one was around this morning, he moved a chair so he could reach the disk on the shelf (usually it's been in the machine, but someone put Super Smash Brothers in last night).  Then he tried jamming it in until it cracked.  It's startling to me that he will push on it so hard to make it snap in half, even though it's not budging due to the other disk in its way.

When Larisa told me what happened, I raised my voice and scolded him for breaking it.  "Now you can't play Paint Squid, Emmett!"  He watched me but didn't react, still with his permanent smile on his face.  I kept emphasizing it:  "It's broken---you can't play it anymore."

Then Larisa took him to drop the other boys off at soccer camp, and when she returned she said that he had something to talk to me about.  Emmett was already playing 'Mario-cat' (Mario 3D World) and didn't respond to her asking him what he wanted to talk to me about.  So I went over to him and asked what he wanted to talk about.  He turned to look at me, paused for about two seconds, and said, "Be happy Dad."  Then he went back to his game.  Larisa says that in the car he asked "Is Daddy sad?"  Then he said, "I want my friend Dad to be happy."


Fearless:

Yesterday we were at Village Park with the Moffitts.  When it was time to go, I couldn't find Emmett.  He had just been with Max a couple minutes earlier.  After wandering around for a bit, I heard him say "Dad, I'm up here."  He was way up in a tree, probably two stories high.  It's one of those pine trees with smooth, thick branches that are great for climbing.  I went over and stood under him and tried to coax him down.  When I couldn't tell if he was coming down or up, I decided it was too dangerous to wait, so I climbed up.  On the way up I was saying, "hold on tight Emmett, you're too high, it's dangerous."  As I was just about to him, I think he got the idea to get away or something.  He moved to the other side of the tree, just out of reach, and he was hanging from one hand, with both feet dangling and a branch a few inches below his feet.  I quickly moved around and grabbed him and climbed down with him in one arm.  What a nightmare!  I don't think he ever realized he was in any sort of danger.