Last night, I stood next to my tall son who was wearing a wife beater tank, white pants, and white dress shoes, as he worked on his "mouse trap" auto--spring angel wings prop to complete his Drama Districts costume. Drama Districts will be on Saturday. The wings were started on Wednesday after "the mom" ran around two different towns compiling supplies for him.
Tiny shards of wire and bits of foam core board cluttered the counter table and floor. He held the wings out and as he popped the trap, the wings snapped open. I marveled at the clever apparatus made out of wooden dowels, foam core board, a mouse trap (of course), various nuts and bolts, and lots of hot glue.
"You are so talented," I said. "You should be an engineer!" I wondered how a brain could even come up with such a contraption!
He looked at me with a half smile, then started listing off several careers that he's interested in; Fire fighter, actor, costume designer, blacksmith, Coroner, and Rock Star. His interests are varied.
The sing song way his voice named the careers made the words to Theo Le Sieg's (AKA Dr. Seuss') book, Do You Want to Fly a Jet, immediately come to mind.
I began quoting the book to him and we laughed. It was a frequent read from his childhood, and memories flashed through my mind of a brown--eyed boy with a damp blond bowl cut, smelling of baby shampoo, cuddling with me on the couch. . . .
This career talk is new and strange and a little frightening--at least for me. I am learning how difficult it must be for mother birds to push their babies out of their nests and let them fly. I want to grab my boy and put my arms around him and protect him and keep him safe and cozy. But if I do that, he'll never learn how to SOAR!
Tonight, when the windows reflect the dark night, Alex will once again be in my kitchen furiously working and creating and hot gluing and carefully and meticulously gluing feathers to his mouse trap wing contraptions.
And when he dons them, I will think . . . exercise those wings, flap hard and prepare because very soon you will be leaving my nest,
and what I wish most for you is to SOAR.
All Photos by Laura Walker Photographies
2 comments:
He is growing so fast!!! He really is creative to put something like that together... cool! :)
Your post needs to be updated. How did he DO at his competition?!?!?
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