Sunday, January 10, 2010

What neighbors?

This morning my three year old built this with his legos:










My son. The cherub who kisses me at night and squeezes his baby sister with hugs so tight she erupts into giggles is building assault rifles with legos? I searched my mind to think about where he would have seen a gun often enough to remember it with such detail. None of the videos or cartoons we let him watch have these in it. A nine mm maybe, or a 22 but not a machine gun. And for some reason I doubt PBS has added guns to the things you'll find in the drawer in Elmo's world. Surely Calliou's parents are too perfect to let him run amok armed like a guerilla.

I finally broke down and asked him where he had seen a gun like that. He responded "in abwaska. In a neighbors house, when I pway in dey bwack car."

The first thought through my mind was that we haven't been in Nebraska for over a month, and he played in the neighbors car in the beginning of November. What doesn't this kid remember? Then I panicked a little. What kind of people live next door to my parents? He saw an assault rifle in their car!? Were they axe murderers? No, their paid assasins. Or sleeper cell terrorists. Maybe I've seen one too many movies.

I called my mom and talked to her.

He saw a nerf gun they had purchased as a Christmas gift for their nephew. He wanted it badly and had tried to convince them to give it to him. I then asked him again. He said "yes they had a gun and me wanted it and dey said no. So me come home and me build it wif mine wegos."

My kid isn't a budding serial killer after all. Thank God. And my parents don't live next door to covert terrorists either. And my imagination is a bit out of control. Now. How do I smoosh this new gun obsession my three year old has?