Interests and Obsessions

It occurred to me the other day that I can track Nick's growth over the years simply by thinking about the toys he's played with, and the interests he has developed. 

When he was really little, and I am referring to ages 1-6ish, Nick's thing was dinosaurs!!  He had a huge tub of them at home and another at my mom's house.  He knew the name of each dinosaur, what they ate, when they lived, and who hunted who.  Besides the dinosaur figures, we somehow accumulated 30-40 different books about dinosaurs that we read, studied, and learned from.  I saw we, because since Nick was so young during this phase, I was the one reading the books and helping Nick pronounce the dinosaur names.  I don't think I retained quite as much information from all of this as he did, but pretty close!  I have to say that even though Nick is older now and has moved on to a new love (more of that later), he is still interested in dinosaurs.

Age 6- 8ish saw the advent of the cars...hundreds and hundreds of match box cars. (well, not really hundreds, but several cardboard boxes worth).  He would take them out and sort them by color, type of car, size, etc.  Then he'd line them up.  I'd walk through various rooms in my house and find lines of cars curving and swirling from one end of the room to another.  I guess he played with them too, but this is what I mostly remember.  My friend Suzanne said her nephew did this too, so I suppose it is pretty common, but for the life of me, I can't figure out the appeal.  I guess it's a boy thing!

I should have mentioned earlier that in addition to the dinosaurs and cars, one of Nick's great loves is animals.  We have been going to zoos since before he could walk.  Every time we visit a new town, we make sure to go to the zoo.  Nick loves animals!!  We had as many books about different animals as we did about the dinosaurs. When he was tiny, he pronounced them "Aminals", which I though was so cute it about killed me when he began pronouncing the work correctly.  To this day, he has a rapport with animals that amazes me.  We went to visit a friend of my mom's a couple of years ago and she had a small house dog who she said, hated everyone but her.  Low and behold, not 10 minutes after our arrival, Nick is sitting in a recliner with this people-hating dog sprawled in his lap getting a belly rub.  Too funny!!

Age 9-present time, life is all about STAR WARS!!!  I made the mistake of introducing Nick to the original Star Wars movies thinking he might enjoy them.  MIGHT??? An obsession was born.  Nick has commandeered my original 3 movies and now owns the latest ones as well.  His room is a smorgasbord of light sabers, action figures, Star Wars posters, statues, Lego spacecrafts, a comforter, and a Wampa rug I bought him for Christmas.  Did I mention the action figures???  He has countless figurines, each with several tiny plastic weapons that find themselves transported all over the house because Nick doesn't keep them picked up and our dog Seamus is nosy!!  Luckily, so far Seamus has only chewed some of the figures.  I don't think he has actually swallowed any.  If he has, I am blissfully unaware of it! 

This Star Wars obsession made Christmas shopping pretty easy this year.  I don't know how long it'll last or what the next few years will bring (girls...shudder), but for now, I am enjoying his latest interest.  I am in NO hurry for him to grow up!