Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Fighting the Forces of Nature

No, the title is NOT referring to this ridiculous winter weather (although I have to say, I'm not complaining about today's temp of 30 degrees).

Instead, I am referring to the battle against my son's nature. That is, it is in his nature to love vehicles. It started with trains, specifically Thomas. He can now identify and name several of the engines, which is fun for us, since he really only started using names in the last 6 months and still only refers to Leah as "her".

Toy cars have always been around, of course, and he watched Pixar's movie Cars at his Uncle Mike's house (as he'll tell you) this last August. I picked up a single Cars car at a garage sale, and that along with the Wii game MarioKart (which we rented ONCE) have sealed the deal - cars are another fascination.

So much so that instead of continuing his insistence that he have a choo-choo birthday party, he started to switch it up with a car party. By the way, if you are surprised that his birthday has been a topic of conversation since last summer, you may have forgotten that he has an older sister. She's been planning her own big day since about two months after her last one.

Although it appears that he has again settled on a train theme. You know, since he has started insisting on looking at train cakes on the internet. And folks, there are a LOT out there.

Anyway. There is one specific result of his basic nature that I am willing to battle - and Aaron is willing to back me up, I believe!

This is it: NASCAR. I'm sorry to all you fans out there, and I know there are millions of you. I'm even more sorry for your possibly non-fan spouses and other family members. But here in this house? We are NOT fans. Of car racing in general - we're not just biased against a specific type. I'm sure there is a plethora of excitement and adrenaline involved with the "sport", but it entirely lost on us.

The other night, we were enjoying the luxury of our newly installed cable by flipping through our now clear-as-a-bell local channels...and caught the tail end of some race. We flipped by, but Ben insisted that we return to the "race cars!" We went back, against my better judgement.

Ben stared at the television, completely mesmerized. Then he rewarded the drivers with his new sign of approval - he gave a double thumbs-up and said, "COOL!"

I turned to Aaron and said something along the lines of, "HE MUST NEVER SEE THIS AGAIN."

9 comments:

BlueCastle said...

What a cute little dude. I love that he calls Leah "her". He sounds quirky. He also sounds like a real boy - boys like fast cars. :)

JJ and EJ said...

Haha! Who does the double thumbs up again? Sonic? :) Ben-o's so cute!

Hey -- I made your veggie lasagna last night. Way too much work. I must find a simpler version! It was delish, but girl, I dig the lasagna recipes where you don't even have to cook the noodles.

Noel said...

Just as there and pulp romance novels and then Jane Austen, please be aware that there is NASCAR and then Formula One.

One example of F1 Geek Chic may be noted at http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/11/05/233227/williams-team-use-telemetry-to-patch-f1-cars-as-they.htm .

BTW, which cable package did you get?

Anonymous said...

Remember Liz, just because you and Aaron do not like Nascar and its sister (used in the non-sexual form)organizations; be aware that maybe your feelings towards racing are the same ones that Ben has to hitting a little white ball.

Lyz said...

Godfather - I'll nip that suggestion in the bud - Ben actually loves golf! We have a toy set, and he spends a lot of time whacking around the living room. He's got a powerful swing, though, so we have to keep our distance.

Aaron said...

Liz, I have a suggestion for weaning him off of car racing: Bike racing. And you are in luck, the Spring Classics series is starting up. Probably every sunday on VS there will be a big bike race in the afternoon. And June/July has the TDF, which is on every day!

AJ said...

I guess Aaron thinks we have the big cable package and not the cheapskate package.

Aaron said...

Then obviously you'll have to take him to your local european sports bar.

Noel said...

So did you just get channels 2-14 or did you get the Digital Lifeline with channels 300-34x (including the Golf Channel AND stuff like bike racing)?