Stuff it!

I have two boys ages 9 and 7. Recently I have shared with friends, that I have been wondering when they would "grow out of" the stuffed animal stage. They probably hinted a slight touch of motherly concern, which I admit I have had some of. On the other hand, I absolutely adore their innocence and plan to keep it as long as possible. Admittedly, a lot of friends their age have started to outgrow them, but not all of them. There has been a slight nagging about it within me, a sort of unspoken crazy feeling that they should be outgrowing them.



These boys love their "pets" they call them. Webkinz are their favorites and they spend almost all their money on them when they get it. They keep their birthdays memorized and know their profiles as well. Mostly, when they "play" with them I realized they really do a few things consistently. They create sports teams; costumes and all, they participate in "Webkinz skiing" which involves a big toss and a wood floor, and they recently made them their very own Monopoly board. They are like a whole bunch of brothers and sisters, maybe the large family I always wanted without the extra laundry?......you never know;)



Well, yesterday after a great day of school they were enjoying free time in their rooms and I walked into this...





And this....When I asked what they were entertaining themselves with so nicely, I was given the details on the "5 stages of torture" that they had set up. They were laughing and giggling and having the best time. I took pictures of the first two then I was laughing to hard to get any more. The first one there is the "guillotine", which we recently studied about with the French Revolution. (I am proud they remembered some about it, but obviously not enough if it is the 1st stage???...) The second one there is the criminal on the catapult (which we made in our boys club at co op) about to be flown into the bookshelves at high speed. I don't quite remember the details of the other three but in the end there was a bungy cord and a hook, and it got pretty ugly. By then, I was already planning this post on how boys will be boys and how us moms need to allow our kids to move gradually from stage to stage not rushing where we think they should be;) After all, the stuffed animals won't make it long at this rate!