Boys and Their Toys!

It has been a wild and crazy summer here.  Lots of activity and changes!  Hence, my absence for a few weeks.  The weekend brought a few chuckles and thoughts that I wanted to share.

First, mothers of boys, be sure that you allow your sons to play to their heart's content with toy trucks and bulldozers and shovels and other "manly" things when they are little.  Doc's mother would not let him take his Tonka trucks out in the dirt when he was a youngster.  As a result, my boys had absolutely pristine Tonka trucks to play with.  Their sons will have rusted and dented Tonka trucks to play with because I let the boys dig in the dirt and sandbox with them.  Occasionally and irresponsibly, they were left out overnight but they were loved and enjoyed for all their worth.

Doc grew up to be an adult who still wants to play with Tonka trucks.  And now, his mother cannot tell him to keep them inside.  Hence, the tractors, backhoes and front loaders that we own.  Hence the chain saws and log splitter.  He gets a kind of crazy look in his eye when he needs to use them.  In fact, he seems to spend some of his time looking for ways to use them.  I was moving some plants this weekend that were in old barrels that were falling apart.  I was working with a shovel and bucket and digging them out, moving the dirt and replanting.  He got that look when he was watching me and kept insisting that he could get the backhoe, lift those barrels and the job would be done!  I fended him off and did it my way, fortunately as the barrels no longer had bottoms.

But don't worry, a tree needed to be cut down.  I stopped him at one tree, although he continues to eye one or two more and I am certain that they will disappear one afternoon when I am not there to protect them.  There was a lot of chainsaw noise, a little swearing, a lot of our son and son in law standing by to help and finally a loud crash as the tree toppled to the ground after stalling out on a couple of other trees.  Of course, I felt it necessary to holler "Timber!"  My boys seem to enjoy these events, but I am fearful that they are catching the "fever" from their dad.  The more they are all together, the more "guy things" they seem to do.

So thanks to my mother in law, for stunting my husband's psychological and emotional growth and preventing him from playing with his toys as a boy.  It has left me to deal with a man who plays with bigger and louder toys!  I hope my daughter in laws appreciate my efforts in having let our boys play away!  Have a blessed week!