When you've got a child who thinks outside the box, Christmas shopping can take on a different kind of challenge. You have to look for "safe" gifts.... the kind that can't be used for an unexpected scientific experiment or worse! lol

This year, I really thought I had managed to get my son a gift that would encourage his amazingly curious 10-year-old mind and keep all of us safe. I found a wonderful science kit that explored experiments with the weather. Cool :)

What I never dreamed was that the real scientific experiment of the season would have nothing to do with the weather. You see, I bought Andrew an IPod and knowing the ear buds would never stay in his ears, I also bought him a set of those kind that you stick over the outside of your ears. They worked wonderfully.

So what happened to the original set? It went something like this....

"Hey Mom, look. I've plugged my ear buds into my CD player so they could get some real volume. Now watch!"

Cringing for his eardrums, I was afraid to look. But that's not what he had in mind! This child who carries my DNA crammed the ear buds up his nostrils (these are about the diameter of marbles btw) and began flapping his mouth open and shut.

What appeared to me to be an imitation of a monkey having a seizures was my son attempting to channel sound up through his nasal passage, down his throat and out his mouth. The flapping mouth was his volume control!

Sigh.... What a kid!!!!

I'm just praying we all survive long enough to see him become the world's next Thomas Edison or Bill Gates.