For my Father's Day activity on Saturday, the five of us went to the new Star Wars exhibit at the Fort Worth Science Museum. I am a massive Star Wars fan and Henry has become a pretty big Star Wars fan in his own right. Henry's interest in Star Wars really peaked around the time Episode III came out a few years ago. I've learned that kids go through phases of shows or toys they are passionate about. For Henry, it was Thomas the Tank Engine, then Buzz Lightyear, then Star Wars, then Monster Trucks, then anything related to Michael Jordan, then the NFL, then European club soccer, and now Mario Kart. It seems like he only has the capacity to be loyal to roughly one such interest at a time. Caroline has gone from Dora to Little Bear (another cartoon), to Lady and the Tramp, to Mickey Mouse.
The problem for me is that I get extremely caught up in whatever my kids interests are, to the point that I begin to enjoy them so much (like watching the rest of Toy Story even when the kids fall asleep half way through) that I become sad when they move on to their next hobby. While the hobby is raging, I add a lot of fuel to the fire by encouraging (spoiling) the kids in their interests. Below is a picture of Henry's train table I built for him on our kitchen floor (the house we lived in at the time at Duke did not have a garage) and Thomas trains I bought for him. Ebay made a lot of money off of me in that period.
Leaving the Thomas the Tank Engine phase behind, for instance, was very hard for me. "Henry" and "Caroline" happened to be the names of characters on that show, and I still have Henry the Green Engine and Caroline the Car toys in my office at work. The picture below was taken at the heighth of Henry's love of Thomas, and is one of those priceless moments you have as a parent where you take your kids' interest and hit a home run with it.
Likewise, the picture below of Henry fighting Darth Vader (while wearing his Jordan jersey) at Disney World represents one of my life's crowning moments. Henry was 4 years old at the time, and the reason moments like these are special is because you know inside that at that moment no other 4 year old on the planet is as happy as your's is. And you're the one that made it happen. That's a big rush as a parent.
Anyway, the Star Wars exhibit was pretty cool. On display were lots of costumes and models of space ships that were used in the movies. It was a little crowded, but the kids had a good time. Henry especially liked the exhibits of the light sabres used in the movies. After the museum we ate at Joe T. Garcia's, which is a famous Tex Mex place in Fort Worth. The food was excellent. All in all, a very nice Father's Day outing.
P.S. Tune in later for my guest blog on the Gilmore Girls series finale. Keep it real, Adam
2 comments:
Adam it is always good to hear from you as a guest blogger. I really enjoyed you sharing your thoughts on your kids and their obsessions and trends. Happy fathers day! You are a great dad! Henry told me so.
I can just see Henry, Carolinie and Manthers up in Heaven saying: "Please let him be our Dad--he's so great"! And since you and Laurel were meant to be their parents, they got their wish. This made them twice as happy because they got a good Mom at the same time. Cheers to you and E-Bay! I figure that it (E-Bay) was quite happy that you are the doting father of the best kids in the whole world!
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