A Boy and His Big Boy Toys

This past Sunday a friend from church came over with a treasure of "boy toys" found within the confines of a very large plastic container. She had been cleaning out everything her 14-year-old son had outgrown, and came to church with the mission of sharing the love. She announced in our Relief Society meeting that she had some clothes as well as some transformer-type toys, Legos, and other toys that a 14-year-old no longer needs or wants and wondered if anyone was interested. My ears perked up when I heard "transformer" because Ben has been talking about Transformers for weeks. I told her we'd take a few. Well, she came over to the house when I was at choir practice and brought her son's treasures for Brad and Ben to see. Wouldn't you know it, we ended up with the entire container! Ben was ecstatic.

There were so many toys that I said, "Hey Ben, now you don't need any birthday presents." I full expected him to disagree, but he didn't. He enthusiastically said, "I know!" He is also blessing his Transformers in his prayers - guess he is exceptionally thankful for this little gift from Heaven!

Ben has spent hours playing with the transformers and other goodies found in the box. The bonus goodies included a container full of little cars and a bunch of "guys". A few months ago Grandma Judy bought Ben some "guys" with little guy guns, and Ben has loved laying with them. He was very excited to get some new guys to add to his collection - especially the Star Wars guys - I guess because we have nothing Star Wars in this house.

I find it fascinating that Ben knows all about Transformers and Star Wars and other "big boy" toys when these are never a topic of discussion in our house. Somehow he is getting his boy education despite being surrounded by girls every day of his life. He did mention that he needed to show Jack and Morgan (boys of dear friends Rod & Lesli) his Transformers and Star Wars guys. In fact, he has mentioned it multiple times, so I am quite certain that he can't wait for Jack & Morgan to see his new collection of big boy toys. In the eyes of this almost four-year-old those two big six-year-olds know all the ins and outs of the world of big boy toys.

And just a side note about the life of Ben these days . . . this post could have also been titled "Pajama Boy" because he refuses to put on clothes! He wants to wear pajamas all. day. long. - thus all these pictures in pjs. If I ask him to get dressed because we are leaving the house, he grudgingly will do so (usually), but the minute we are home he runs upstairs and puts his pajamas back on. I'm hoping it's just a stage . . .