We have been living in our current home for two-and-a-half years now. We live in an older neighborhood where many of the residents have been there for 25+ years. We’ve only met a few of our neighbors so far. Last night, a lady from across the street came to our front door with a HUGE box. She introduced herself as one of our neighbors and said she’s been meaning to come over for a long time now, but for this and that reason, never had. She remembered the day we brought Sam home from the hospital and couldn’t believe how much he had grown in the past couple of years.

At that point, she showed us the box she had brought over. It was a huge military action figure set for Sam. Inside were three or four army vehicles, toy soldiers and a whole slew of guns, binoculars and other paraphenalia. I couldn’t believe someone would be that generous–to give a child she didn’t know such a big gift. At the same time, I was shocked that she would give such a violent toy to a child whom she didn’t know (and to people who actively protested the war) and I wasn’t delighted about the idea of my sweet baby playing with guns and missiles. Isn’t childhood supposed to be a time of blissful ignorance of the horrible things that take place in the world? I was truly touched by her gesture, but dislike the gift intensely. Sam, on the other hand, thinks it’s fantastic. The vehicles have a million working parts which he enjoys manipulating. They also have various sirens and flashing lights which he can set off by pushing this or that button.

Robert’s not so worried about this. As he pointed out, Sam has no idea what these toys represent. All he sees them as are cars and little people (we haven’t given him the tiny guns–not that he’d know what they are). Robert also rightly pointed out that, for Sam, the emotional content of the toys would be whatever we assigned them. He tried reassuring me that Sam wouldn’t necessarily grow into a murderer simply because he had an action figure set as a child. Both of us had similar toys when we were younger, saw violent films and played violent video games and still turned out decent people with a sense of what was right and wrong.

Still… I don’t like the toys and it disturbs me to see Sam play with them instead of some of the wonderful toys he received for his birthday. So much for Chicken Dance Elmo and Hokey Pokey Elmo. So much for the tent. So much for the box full of brightly colored cars and trucks. So much for his Little People Circus Train. Our home is now a war zone.

I would sell my right arm for an oatmeal raisin cookie. The store downstairs only had ginger and chocolate chip. I’m settling for a ginger cookie (yummy, yes, but not what I CRAVE).

Two years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who would change our lives immeasurably. Here he is on the day he was born:

Here’s another photo of him from that first blessed month, which shows just how tiny and sweet he was:

And here’s the big boy on his first birthday:

Here he is today, enjoying his brand new tent:

Sam’s accomplishments this year include learning to walk and run, starting to talk (nonstop), singing, dancing, and jumping. This has been a remarkable year. I’m so proud of my big two-year old!