Monday, April 7, 2008

My Son's a "Tween"... Heaven Help Me...

So Sunday my oldest son turned 12. He tells me today, "Just think mom! On my next birthday I'll be 13!!" Oiy! If he lives that long! And 12 year old boys aren't the easiest to shop for, either! I'm telling you, he's right at that age where many of the "toys" are just too young or too small for him and then a lot of the technology stuff is just.... Well, I don't think he's mature enough for... Besides that I feel so stoopid when it comes to some of this techie stuff that kids get so in to these days. Anyway, after my unsuccessful excursion to find "THE gift" my husband volunteered for the mission, to which I gladly accepted!

He brought home a rock polisher. That's right. A rock polisher. Now, if you knew my son, you would agree that this was a pretty cool gift. He likes science stuff and all things that kind of allow him to do hands on kinds of things. The microscope kit complete with scalpel, slides and sample boxes, etc, has been a BIG hit since my mother bought it for him a few years back. Bug collecting, dissecting, studying, etc... He's had frog habitats, bug terrariums, and an ant farm.... Now my husband's thought on this years birthday gift was that when he got the frog farm he had to WAIT to send away for the tadpoles, the ant farm, the same... Uncle Milton never seemed to be in any hurry to send out the critters that were promised to come with the project purchased and we couldn't help but sense at least a little disappointment in my son having to wait to "use" his new "thing"... So, hubby figured, rock polishing. We got rocks! No waiting! No disappointment! : )

So, as presumed, our son was THRILLED with the new gadget! He couldn't wait to open it up and start it! He starts to assemble while hubby reads the instructions... "step 1, add rocks, water and grinding powder to tumbler... start machine and tumble for 24 hours...." -snicker- "step 2, add a different grinding powder, restart machine for 48 hours...." -son's face falls- "step 3, add polishing powder and restart machine for 96 hours...." -tears are forming in sons eyes, "dad!!" "step 4, add second polishing powder and restart for another 3-4 days..." -sigh- "you're kidding, right dad?"

Hubby wasn't sure how to answer, other than, "well, no, that's what it says, son...." "But DAD!" Okay, so, deciding that they just wanted to see how it went, they started step one... about an hour or so later I heard the machine squeaking. Only half kidding, I commented, that "the machine is squeaking, does that mean that it's time for step 2?" lol... hubby and oldest son looked at each other and decided they better go check it out. A few minutes later they returned having decided that an hour and a half was close enough to a day, so they moved on to step 2. Step 2 lasted a couple of hours before they moved on to step 3. By 8pm, they figured that the polishing should just about be complete... so much for patience.... : )

My son spent the rest of the evening trying to convince himself that the rocks did look a "little shinier..." but by morning had decided to restock the tumbler and start again.

"This time I'm going to do it like the instructions say, mom..."

"Okay, son. I can't wait!" : ) I'll let you know how they turn out!

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