Elijah Town

One of the 320,982 things that amazes me about Diana is how she made the transition from being a non-mom to a mom so easily. I’m sure it was partly because she had to. They made us take Elijah with us after he was born.

But it’s also because she has that mom sixth sense. That weird Spidey sense that seems to know exactly what Eli wants two seconds before he yells for it. She seems to hand him a warm milk just as he shouts, “Mama…I want miiiiilk!” She also is able to cup her hands just as the yogurt-covered pretzels are expelled from our son’s belly.

Well, earlier this week Diana’s sixth sense decided Elijah needed a 100 piece wooden toy set. Don’t ask me why this couldn’t wait until Christmas. Ask the sixth sense. I got home the other night to a massive box in the middle of the living room.

Let me make a subtle distinction for you. I loath putting together almost everything. Ikea furniture makes me want to rip off my shirt, Hulk-style. Dining room mantling and dismantling dining room tables makes me want to run headlong into a door jam. But for some reason I love putting together toys. I’m sure most of it has to do with the fact I want to play with them more than he wants to.

So I was decidedly not grouchy when building the train set, which I have since dubbed “Elijah Town.” The set came with everything. Tracks, buildings, a big wooden table (the only part of the toy that I didn’t like putting together) and tons of little wooden people and cars and trucks. The only things I had to supply were a philips head screwdriver and 3/4 of a bottle of wine.

But I have to say, I made quite a lovely town. It was clean, there was no crime (I threw the investment banker wooden people into the trash), the trains ran on time and the little firemen outnumbered the other townspeople two to one. I had to fight the sacrilegious urge to make the little wooden townspeople build a church in my honor.

Of course I was at work when Elijah Town was revealed to our son the next morning. But he apparently shouted, “Oh…my…gosh!”

When I arrived home last night, I found that Elijah isn’t the benevolent deity I am. Elijah Town was destroyed. Bridges were toppled into the blue-painted Lake Grover. Mount Mommy was knocked over. All the tiny wooden construction workers were on break way longer than union rules.

As I put Elijah Town back together, Eli came up behind me and repeated, “Awesome,” over and over.

p.s. Today’s photo is Elijah town, right before Grover does his “Mothra” impersonation.