The Boy pt. 6

This past weekend was The Boy's tenth birthday. Where did ten years go, I wonder. How fast time flies when you're having kids.

Where did my baby go?

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I love to do this tradition with my kids that my mom and dad did with us. Every year, we woke up to a balloon in our bedroom. I imagine it started innocently. One of my folks taped a blown-up latex balloon and taped it to the door. But over time, it became the helium mylar balloon. It was a simple gesture, but I loved it. It became one of my favorite surprises. I never knew what my balloon would look like, but I knew I would get one, and that was enough to make me look forward to waking up on my birthday.

I decided to carry the tradition on to my kids. I don't put the balloon in their room, and sometimes I even let them pick it out because they asked one year to do that, and they loved choosing whatever balloon they wanted. But sometimes, I just want to surprise them. I usually tie it to their chair so that when they come down the stairs to eat breakfast, there's a balloon waiting for them. So, on Saturday morning, The Boy wandered down to the kitchen and found a Spongebob Squarepants balloon. He oohed and ahhed clearly pleased with his balloon. I had no idea he what he was envisioning to do with the balloon.

Now the girls, they walk around the house for days with their balloon, tugging on the string, making up imagination games, until it gets to the point I just must through the balloon away, resulting in little sulky faces as they mourn the demise of their birthday balloon. Joshua, however, is the only person I know that can turn anything, even a balloon into a weapon of mass destruction.

I would think by age ten, he wouldn't be quite the destruct-o kid anymore. I don't know why I keep thinking this, because he hasn't changed much in ten years. First, the balloon started out as an instrument. He made wonderful rhythms with the crinkle-y mylar until I hollered "AGH! Please stop doing that!" Then five minutes later, I heard "AHHHhhh! Stoooooooooooooooooooop iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" along with some less rhythmical crinkle-y noises. Ruthie emerged and Joshua was chasing her with the balloon, a cutting a swath of destruction in his wake as he wildly swung the WMD back and forth trying to maul his little sister while issuing a battle cry not heard since Braveheart.

Needless to say, I stopped that activity pronto. I also began saving up for Ruth's future therapy bills when she has to deal with her issues of killer mylar balloons.

I'm still trying to decide if this is a "boy" thing that all boys would do, or if he just takes all "boy" things to a whole other level. I'm going to guess it's the latter. He is alpha male, after all.