There are so many amazing things about being a dad, but one of my personal favorites is an excuse to buy toys! Seriously, I’m just a big kid at heart and very much still love toys. If you saw my desk at work, our desk at home, my box full of legos that I bought for myself just because I love building legos hoping one day I would have a child to share them with you would understand. Toys are awesome…but when you’re an adult there’s some unwritten rule about having to act mature and grow up and not play with toys all the time. How lame! However, when you have a kid…you get to be a kid all over again! You get to play silly games, use your imagination to pretend to be a t-rex and go to the store and drool over the coolest toys and it’s ok because you can say…it’s for my kid…
Right now my son loves the animal figures that you can get at the zoo. He has one for each zoo trip he’s made so far, a few from my own collection from when I was a kid (and an adult) and a few that we got from other places. He loves playing “zoo” and these animals have found a permanent home on the table stand right next to our TV stand (picture below). These are the main toys he plays with at his grandparents house, and the toys that he saves his money for when he helps us around the house. I could not be happier with this and often have a harder time not buying new animals than he does! I loved the same toys when I was a kid as my parents started the tradition in my family of buying a new animal each time we go to the zoo.
Eventually I know that he will outgrow these animals and a lot of his other toys and graduate to bigger kid toys, then teenage toys and finally have to be an adult like me. But, right now, it’s fun to recreate a little bit of my childhood and see the joy and happiness on his face when he plays with this animal toys. It can be hard with the day to day struggles of life to remember to stop and relax and have fun. Kids are great at reminding adults why it’s so important to stop and take time to enjoy the little things…to play…and to make the sound I’m sure all snow leopards make: “MAO! MAO! MAO!”
This is fatherhood…
This Is Fatherhood 