Mint in case? Not anymore…

I had Ethan for a full week and it was a lot of fun having the little guy for that long. I really think he had a lot of fun as well. We hit fan expo, hung out with my brother Chris a few times. In all it was a fun seven days so it was sad to see the little guy go home when the week was over. He was well behaved most of the time and even his moments when he had them were very minor. He’s only been gone a day and I miss the little bugger already.

Speaking of Ethan, one day during our week together I sleep in and Ethan was nice enough to just play in the living room and wait for me to wake up on my own. That was really nice of him and when I came out to the living room to ask him what he wanted for breakfast, Ethan was playing with Star Wars action figures. Ethan has slowly been getting into Star Wars, which is slowly becoming his new obsession. I thought it was cute that he was playing with the action toys and then a quick question finally popped into my head: Where did these action figures come from?

Then I suddenly realized which action figures Ethan was playing with: Darth Maul, Obiwan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn… all figures from Star Wars Episode I. Then it finally dawned on me: those are my action figures! I had these same three figures, first purchased in 1997 when Episode I first came out… and until that day they were mint and still in their packages. Were being the key word here.

At first I wanted to scream and get upset that Ethan had opened my mint Star Wars action figures without asking… but I didn’t. Another good point had occurred to me: Ethan was playing with toys for the first time in forever that were not dinosaurs or dragons, which have been his current obsessions for the last four years. I realized that if I got upset with Ethan for opening my toys, me might back away from playing with Star Wars toys and possibly revert back to his dinosaur/dragon routine. So instead of getting upset about opening my toys, I sat down beside him and took Darth Maul and played with him. They’re just toys, they’re made to be played with for our amusement… right?

I didn’t say he could open them, but at the same time I didn’t exactly tell him he couldn’t either. I’m no where near as obsessed about them as I used to be so I didn’t see the need to get upset about it. Instead I offered to let Ethan take them back to his Mom’s place if he wanted to play with them there too.

Seeing Ethan play with those toys was more fun than keeping them on the wall in their packaging. My priorities have changed, mostly for the better. I’m more concerned about being a good Dad than I am about collecting things. I’m more concerned about my future and the world I will leave my boys than petty things like what’s on television next month or who is going to play the next Batman.

I guess I’m growing up. It was bound to eventually happen…

Peter