Sunday, February 8, 2009

To the Rescue

Benjamin has a thing for catastrophes--storms, power outages, tornadoes or terrible things. The only difficulty is that he likes things to be so bad that there is no way to fix the problem. For example this is what happened today before church. I wouldn't mind, except for when I'm supposed to offer some kind of solution and then he rejects my solutions repeatedly. I'm sure that's part of the game. He is the son of Mr. Worst Case Scenario.

"Policeman (that was assigned to me!) The power's out. There is no electricity. All the cars are broken down."
(I'm washing dishes) "Call the power company. They're the ones to fix it."
"They can't. They don't have any fuel for their vehicles."
"Policeman, (Isaac talking now) help!"
"Why don't you go get a bulldozer?"
"No. No one can help. It's dark and there's no power. There was a storm. It took all the power out. What will we do?"

This went on for some time. Isaac and Benjamin ran around the downstairs dealing with the problems of the city while I did my dishes. Every so often, they would pop in to confer with "Policeman."

Finally, "Policeman, can we use your ambulance?"
"Sure."

Then I had to shower. When I came back from the shower, this is what I found.

I was told that they were the rescue train on a mission to help all the people who had lost their power. Now I want to live in THAT city!

What I really love about this is how somewhere underneath it all is the influence of Virgina Lee Burton and her stories. I am so thankful for her creativity and books. She wrote Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow while watching her boys play with their trucks in the sandbox. I love how she puts a story into what her little boys were doing. My boys and I love reading her stories and we love how the little guy can save the day. As the mother of ALL boys, I'm very grateful for books about trucks and diggers and steam shovels that have some flair beyond the facts and parts.

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