To be a child again
As part of our parental guidance strategy, Nicole and I occasionally discipline our children (okay, mostly Jaryn) by putting his toys in time-out (rather than putting him in time out.) On one occasion, we went as far as to permanently ostracize his RC car he had inherited from good ol’ dad by ‘throwing it away’. Obviously, I didn’t want to throw away my RC car, so we made it appear that the car had been eradicated.
Well, a few days ago I decided to resurrect the old thing (against my better judgment and Nicole’s wishes) and Jaryn could not have been more ecstatic. If you ever want to hear the excitement of a child compounded ten fold, just perform the miracle of resuscitating a long forgotten toy.
Anyway, last night we finally got around to putting in the new batteries but for some reason the pair would not function as we had expected. Jaryn was all about to throw a fit, when I realized the antenna had somehow broken off in the “eradication process”. In all my glory and grandeur I decided to resolve the concern by trying to place the antennae closer to the RC car, thinking that perhaps it was a communications problem between the two devices. Well hallelujah, the wheels began to spin and the engine was a purrin’ like a kitten. Granted you had to stay within one inch of the body of the car to make it work.
Now you realize I was moments from putting the poor thing out of its misery. However, after having experienced the splendor of wheels spinning and turning, Jaryn grabbed them out of my hands and began ranting, “see dad, it works!!!”. He then proceeded to bend down to position a functional remote control antennae close enough to a broken RC car to be able to send the life giving signal which enabled the wheels to spin and TADA, a living, moving work of electronics genius, all for about a foot or two until the connection was cut short and the Frankenstein Tyco was again, laid to rest just feet away.
But don’t you fret! My boy was on top of it. For each time he and the toy were separated enough to break the symbiotic relationship, Jaryn was on his feet, eager to position the antennae within inches of the car, again, bringing life to this otherwise lifeless being.
Yes, this ritualistic death and reincarnation scenario repeated itself the rest of the night with Jaryn screaming, “look mom, dad, it does work! Its not broken, see, it runs. Look, I just put the controller here, and it works, see!!” Oh to see a son jumping around wildly while playing a virtual game of leapfrog with his long lost toy.
Chalk another ingenious moment to my ever-aggressive and amazing son.