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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
Falling in head-first
By Luke Hales
Published November 5, 2009 I decided not to write a Tuesday column because I wrote one Saturday, and too much of a good thing can be a little much. Kind of like Halloween candy, really.
Speaking of Halloween, it appears I’m going to have to find original stuff to write about, now that Halloween’s over. I can’t complain, though. That holiday gave me at least a month’s worth of material.
It’s back to the grindstone for me and my fingers and my brain, it appears.
And now for something completely different …
This weather has been incredible. I wish it were a tad cooler, because I’m a big dude and I tend to be warmer than some of the less insulated types. But, nevertheless, I crave autumn all year long.
The cooler temperatures have, however, given me plenty of outside time with the boy. He’s four years old now, and he’s a mess. I am certain all the parents out there can relate. He’s not bad or anything, just a ball of energy that only slows down long enough for food and the occasional nap.
We went to the natural science museum in Houston a few weeks back, and though the only thing we really looked at was the dinosaur skeletons, we had a blast. He runs commentary on just about everything. Some gems from that field trip:
“Daddy? I bet that dinosaur is cold because he doesn’t have any skin.”
“Daddy? Can we bring that dinosaur home?”
“Daddy? Do they take the dinosaurs for a walk?”
And so on.
On the way out we stopped at the gift shop, because they have cool stuff there. We tried on the triceratops mask because, hey, who doesn’t want to look like a triceratops at least once in their life? We scouted around looking for something cool to take home, but there wasn’t much he was interested in.
Until we saw the Nerf bow and arrow set.
Simultaneously we said, “Wow,” our jaws dropping in tandem.
We got home and ripped that thing open like Santa was retiring and this was the last toy anyone would ever get, period. And I won’t lie; we had to negotiate over who got to shoot it first.
Naturally, he won, because he’s the kid and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
He figured it out pretty quick, though. And let me tell you, that kid has some aiming skills. He managed to wound me three times, almost as soon as he got that thing going.
Of course, shooting Daddy got a little boring after a while, so he switched to his new game: trying to land Nerf arrows on the roof. He got pretty good at this, requiring me to play arrow caddy with a ladder and a broom for at least a couple of hours.
He discovered my lightsaber recently. My brother bought it for me for Christmas one year, and of course, the first thing I did was swing it straight into a light fixture. It’s one of those fancy ones, with the interchangeable handles and the switch that lets you change the color.
He loves it. He’s figured out that the most efficient way to put a target down is to soften it up with a couple of Nerf arrows, then close in with the lightsaber.
He prefers red, by the way, which concerns me a bit. He hasn’t seen “Star Wars,” but those who have know that only the bad guys swing the red ones. We’ll have to work on that later.
I found a less-expensive one in the half-price Halloween leftover bin the other day. Now we can duel. This is gonna be awesome.
He’s also discovered that hide-and-seek is way funner outside, because there’s a whole lot more places one can conceal themselves. Unfortunately, once he finds a good spot, he pretty well sticks to it. One time I put a cardboard box in the driveway with a target scrawled in Sharpie on one side for Nerf target practice. He figured out that he fits exactly in the box. Guess where he hides every time?
The best part? I’ll go out to the box, and this is how the game goes pretty much every round:
Me: “Hmm … where are you?”
Him (Inside the box): “I don’t know!”
Me: Are you behind the tree?”
Him: No. I’m inside the box!”
We’ve got to work on his hiding skills. Seriously.
I can’t wait till he gets a little older so we can play catch. Right now we play “He throws the ball and I go get it from two feet in front of him and hand it back to him so I can do it again.”
At the same time, I wish he’d never get older. It’s magic, plain and simple, how much fun a boy and his Daddy/target/pitcher can have as the leaves fall one by one, bringing on the change of the season and hope for the coming year.
Luke Hales is the assistant managing editor for The Baytown Sun.
Published November 5, 2009 I decided not to write a Tuesday column because I wrote one Saturday, and too much of a good thing can be a little much. Kind of like Halloween candy, really.
Speaking of Halloween, it appears I’m going to have to find original stuff to write about, now that Halloween’s over. I can’t complain, though. That holiday gave me at least a month’s worth of material.
It’s back to the grindstone for me and my fingers and my brain, it appears.
And now for something completely different …
This weather has been incredible. I wish it were a tad cooler, because I’m a big dude and I tend to be warmer than some of the less insulated types. But, nevertheless, I crave autumn all year long.
The cooler temperatures have, however, given me plenty of outside time with the boy. He’s four years old now, and he’s a mess. I am certain all the parents out there can relate. He’s not bad or anything, just a ball of energy that only slows down long enough for food and the occasional nap.
We went to the natural science museum in Houston a few weeks back, and though the only thing we really looked at was the dinosaur skeletons, we had a blast. He runs commentary on just about everything. Some gems from that field trip:
“Daddy? I bet that dinosaur is cold because he doesn’t have any skin.”
“Daddy? Can we bring that dinosaur home?”
“Daddy? Do they take the dinosaurs for a walk?”
And so on.
On the way out we stopped at the gift shop, because they have cool stuff there. We tried on the triceratops mask because, hey, who doesn’t want to look like a triceratops at least once in their life? We scouted around looking for something cool to take home, but there wasn’t much he was interested in.
Until we saw the Nerf bow and arrow set.
Simultaneously we said, “Wow,” our jaws dropping in tandem.
We got home and ripped that thing open like Santa was retiring and this was the last toy anyone would ever get, period. And I won’t lie; we had to negotiate over who got to shoot it first.
Naturally, he won, because he’s the kid and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
He figured it out pretty quick, though. And let me tell you, that kid has some aiming skills. He managed to wound me three times, almost as soon as he got that thing going.
Of course, shooting Daddy got a little boring after a while, so he switched to his new game: trying to land Nerf arrows on the roof. He got pretty good at this, requiring me to play arrow caddy with a ladder and a broom for at least a couple of hours.
He discovered my lightsaber recently. My brother bought it for me for Christmas one year, and of course, the first thing I did was swing it straight into a light fixture. It’s one of those fancy ones, with the interchangeable handles and the switch that lets you change the color.
He loves it. He’s figured out that the most efficient way to put a target down is to soften it up with a couple of Nerf arrows, then close in with the lightsaber.
He prefers red, by the way, which concerns me a bit. He hasn’t seen “Star Wars,” but those who have know that only the bad guys swing the red ones. We’ll have to work on that later.
I found a less-expensive one in the half-price Halloween leftover bin the other day. Now we can duel. This is gonna be awesome.
He’s also discovered that hide-and-seek is way funner outside, because there’s a whole lot more places one can conceal themselves. Unfortunately, once he finds a good spot, he pretty well sticks to it. One time I put a cardboard box in the driveway with a target scrawled in Sharpie on one side for Nerf target practice. He figured out that he fits exactly in the box. Guess where he hides every time?
The best part? I’ll go out to the box, and this is how the game goes pretty much every round:
Me: “Hmm … where are you?”
Him (Inside the box): “I don’t know!”
Me: Are you behind the tree?”
Him: No. I’m inside the box!”
We’ve got to work on his hiding skills. Seriously.
I can’t wait till he gets a little older so we can play catch. Right now we play “He throws the ball and I go get it from two feet in front of him and hand it back to him so I can do it again.”
At the same time, I wish he’d never get older. It’s magic, plain and simple, how much fun a boy and his Daddy/target/pitcher can have as the leaves fall one by one, bringing on the change of the season and hope for the coming year.
Luke Hales is the assistant managing editor for The Baytown Sun.