You're my Obsession

Dawson has a tool obsession that borders on the pathological. He loves anything in the tool family, but power tools have top priority and are the ultimate obsession. Over the past several months, our usual bed time routine started including a trip to the garage with Dad to look at the weed eater, snow blower, riding mower, chain saw, screwdrivers, air "compressandor"...He knows every part on every tool - "this is the choke, you push this button 3 times, then pull the puller and start it up" and on and on. The only thing I don't like about his love for tools is that tools and Dad are synonymous in his mind, so now I've been taken down a notch on my pedestal. It used to be all Mommy all the time, but Daddy is gaining on me, and my status as #1 in his heart is in jeopardy. Not good. Dawson loves his chain saw and he always wears these gold gloves that were in Ella's dress-up chest. He thinks they look like Todd's leather work gloves, so he insists on wearing them any time he's doing man stuff. Apparently he hasn't noticed that they have flowers and sequins on them. His other favorites are his real miniature tools and his leather tool belt (thanks Auntie D and Uncle Richie). The only problem is that he's been dismembering things with them. First it was the hinges on my pantry doors, then all of the knobs on the dressers would go missing periodically, then the backs of all the battery operated toys are open...He's very meticulous though and will line up the screws in perfect order, and he always knows where to find things that he's taken apart - they're usually in his "workshop." But he took it one step too far a few weeks back when he started taking apart their swing set. We looked outside and he'd taken most of the ladder off and had the pieces laying out, all neat and tidy. So cute but we had to put the kibosh on that. We just got him a weed eater to add to his arsenal because he finally went big potty in the toilet!! He's been going tinkle on demand for almost a year, but it took the bribe of a weed eater of his own to really get him interested in potty training. He carried the box in his lap the whole way home, and kept asking "are we home yet Mom? I wanna use my weed eater" and even though it was raining he headed straight outside to try it out. He ran it all along the edges of the swing set just like Todd does. I love this boy, a silky in one hand, a hammer in the other. A little something to tug at Mom's heart and Dad's all at the same time.