I have mentioned previously how Thomas the Tank Engine has taken over this household. One thing I kind of left out of that anecdote was how much I secretly love putting the wooden track together and creating all sorts of new configurations for his trains. Seeing as it's one of the few intellectual tasks I actually get to do during the day I guess it's not a surprise but I think I might be going a little overboard. I have to sit on my hands to let Lowell put it down by himself (Young man, that is road not track! Oh god, you're not going to connect the mine to the tunnel? Here... not there.. stop...let me help you). Yesterday, as I took the bridge half he was about to lead to nowhere out of his hand Lowell looked up at me and said "Mommy! Take turns!"
I told my sister this story and she said "Yeah, I call those my 'Dad moments'." She was so right. I have this vivid memory of getting a very complicated erector set for Christmas when I was like, 5, and watching my dad "show" me how to put together the sleek, modernist skyscrapers the set built. And then I wasn't allowed to touch them. Also? What first-grader does their science project on plate tectonics, complete with a perfect clay and styrofoam model of the globe illustrating the major continental drifts? As you can imagine his enthusiastic and hands-on approach was mainly wonderful and often very instructive. Every once in awhile he just went a little crazy. (Don't make me tell the story about my Visible Woman model. It ends in tears.) I just hope I can reign in my own crazy perfectionistic tendencies and let Lowell do his thing. I can already see how hard that's going to be.
updated to add: Apologies, Bloglines and feed readers, for the compulsive editing I do after publishing. I just can't help myself. See above.
Hi Alana- Love reading your blogs about motherdom- "Thomas" seems a much healthier obsession than Masters of the Universe. Twenty years ago we had dozens of "action figures" like He- man stashed in a secret hiding place in the basement. When the kid was "good," new figures magically appeared. How sick-o was that? So build away-- at least you're not constructing an evil spider-like creature or a place that strongly resembled a nightmarish underworld.
Posted by: Karen G | March 13, 2007 at 02:02 AM
Hi Karen! Oh, the wildly inappropriate merely awaits. Especially given his father's love of mutant superheroes.
Posted by: LetterB | March 13, 2007 at 08:28 AM
Oh god how I dream of getting to play with erector sets, train tracks, and mutants. Mine is a girl, and despite 5 years of my best effort, she is very girly. All I get to play with are dolls and ponies, and I'm not even allowed to make a phalanx out the ponies. "Papa, how will they talk to each other if they are all facing the same way?"
Posted by: Kevin | March 13, 2007 at 02:24 PM
That is very funny that Lowell reprimanded you for not taking turns. My husband just wrote a post about Thomas, too: http://septakid.blogspot.com/2007/03/thomas-office.html . Best wishes in reigning in the perfectionistic tendencies. I'm sure being aware of it is the biggest step.
Posted by: juliloquy | March 13, 2007 at 03:01 PM
With an almost 2-year-old, the farthest we can get is about 4 pieces of track anyway. It's like that scene in Polar Express where the ice is breaking behind the train!!!!! So scary!!!!! The baby is tearing up the track!!!! Well, okay, it's not really scary, but it means that nobody gives a shit which direction the tracks go and whether or not the bridge is stabilized and so on.
But when we get a new Lego set? That's a different story. I scurry off into my bedroom to get it all just right with no left out pieces to the Star Wars space station. And neither kid even likes Legos.
Posted by: Mignon | March 15, 2007 at 08:56 PM