The Disney store is going out of business at the mall. It’s a shame as that was always a good stop for us to get some rest while the kids ran around, went nuts and well, destroyed their displays. Sorry employees. I confess now as you are on your figurative death bed. Anyway, the wife took my son there last night. He’s a toddler and well, he got himself some Mickey Mouse ears which he wore all over the mall and proclaimed to everyone, “look at my ears.”
But bigger than that, he got a Buzz Lightyear! Oh, the heavens parted, the skies opened and I think there was peace in the middle east for a day. Anyway, I came home and saw him playing with Buzz. He wanted to sleep with Buzz (I said no) and was ignoring the rest of his toys including one toy he has had since birth. Naturally, I didn’t like that as that’s a sign he’s not a baby anymore. I had to stop that. 
He can’t grow up. Just can’t. I digress. So he’s ignoring the rest of his toys and then it dawned on me. This is Toy Story, but in real life. I imagined that his toys were sad that a new toy moved in on their turf. I imagined they were stressed out over what would become of them. Then it dawned on me too. It was a cartoon and I am a real person. What the hell am I thinking? I guess long hours at work, a boy who can’t sleep and marriage will do that to you.
So what was the solution. The older toy is now buddies with Buzz and they hang out together with my boy. The older toy (with some help from me) tickled both Buzz and the boy. All was right with the world.
2 Comments
May 11, 2008 at 3:46 am
Although there can be many ways our children make us old … there too are these, as you describe, which help keep us young through their eyes and wonder.
May 11, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Man, you are telling me. I am going to write a treatise on Scooby Doo pretty soon.