Chastized...

Recently, my wife said, "You haven't been reading the blog lately, have you?" I had innocently asked if she had posted an update about the pie contest. I only missed the post by a few weeks...

That eventually led to her also saying, "You haven't posted anything on the blog either." To which I replied, "Nope".

So now that I am here I might as well say something meaningful.

Thomas has been asked for about 3 weeks (on a daily basis as 5 year olds will) for me to take him to Toys-R-Them to get a toy with some money we had given him. I had delayed, not wanting to get off my lazy duff and do something. Well, yesterday, Thomas was an excellent helper, so Bea and I decided he should get to go to the store and get his toy.

So I took him into his room, got the money out of his piggy bank, and handed it to him. I asked where his wallet was, he didn't know. I told him to put the money is his pocket, and keep it safe. He looked up at me and asked "What's this for Daddy?" I told him it was for a surprise and walked out of the room. He followed eagerly.

We went into the living room. I told Bea we were going to the store to get some stuff. Thomas asked "Which store?" I told him again it was a surprise. Then we went out to the truck, got in and drove towards Toy-R-Them. I fielded the barrage of requests for hints, clues, or outright requests for information about our destination until we were about a block away. At that point it was no longer possible to hide my intentions.

We parked in the parking lot, went inside, and the search began.

We looked at every single toy that was not obviously to him a "Girl Toy". He picked up half, and the others, he just pointed to. It was all very exciting for him. He would ask he could have this or have that, I would ask him in turn if it was in his budget. Mostly he would reply with a sad no. We found a few things that fit in his budget, but he still wanted to look at more toys. So, we looked some more.

Finally, we were going to be late getting to another store before it closed, so I helped him pick a toy. I didn't realize until I left the store, that I helped my son choose a toy that I had wanted since the second grade. He was ecstatic about his toy. He asked 3 times on the way home to get to play with it. When we got home, he proudly showed it to Momma, explained exactly how he thought it should work, and then we proceeded outside to play with HIS Water Powered Rocket.

He loved every second, every step, every shot. Every single drop of water. We only played with the toy about 5 minutes, but to both of us it seemed much longer. I am certain I will be asked tonight to go out a shoot his rocket.

Perhaps some pictures will follow.