October 3, 2003 - Friday
The boys and I were up at their Uncle Jon's house this afternoon so he could do a little work on our car; fix an exhaust pipe and install a trailer hitch. Uncle Jon does a lot of work on cars, as well as lawn mowers and chainsaws and just about anything with an engine, and has a garage full of tools and engine parts. I suppose it's a terrible place for two little boys to play, with plenty of small, greasy engine parts objects for them to move around, hide, or who knows what. But, after watching them carefully for a while it became pretty clear that they were much more interested in "working" themselves. For Jeremy, it was a disassembled chainsaw (a word he knows and can say) that kept his attention for at least 45 minutes of poking and prodding with a screwdriver. Harry worked on the chainsaw, too, but with a far greater variety of socket wrenches that ultimately turned into a "collection."

The fascinating part of this is simply watching two little boys "play" by doing what they see parents and adults around them doing. We were there to fix the car, so they were fixing, too, and they were both doing it with great conviction. In fact, they were both so serious about their "work" that it was evident early on that the potential dangers of such a place where really rather remote.


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