You know, you can be the leftiest parent in the world. You can raise your kid on organics and gluten free foods. You can screen all their reading material, you can even, if you are crazy enough, keep them from watching TV. And of course, it goes without saying that you would never. ever but them a toy gun. But none of that matters because one day they are just going to go outside and NATURE will have MADE them a gun!
"Look Dad!" the Little Dude shouted with delight, "I found a RAY GUN!"
I did not pose him at all for this. The stance all him.
Though I did ask him to turn profile for this shot. It feels very Charlie's Angels to me. That'd be my influence, I'm sure.
And he was more than willing to provide all his own sound effects.
It was certainly NOT my idea to shoot the lion.
Hubs tells me that when they found this in the yard, and then when the Little Dude identified it as a ray gun, he proceeded to sing "it was a baby boy/ so we gave him a toy/ it was a ray gun/ and it was 1984...." And yes, I will admit that he learned that from us. We are White Stripes fans, and that Hardest Button to Button is such a catchy little number. Sometimes Hubs will just hammer out the ridiculously simple drum beat on the kitchen table and I'll sing it. "We were livin' in a old house/ our mom gave birth and we were checkin' it out...." Its a song about homebirth, right? How much more wholesome can you get? Basically its either that or Kumbaya.
Whether you think of it as a gun or not, its quite a pretty piece of nature. Very sculptural. We'll probably keep it around for awhile, and you know how it is with little kids, it'll probably be imagined into a lot of different things, and scenarios. And hopefully not all of them involve the untimely demise of a lion.
Oh, also I heard him later on in the day repeating over and over to himself "Ronald Raygun, Ronald Raygun..." When he noticed me noticing him he said "That's what the stick is named mom."
I blame Hubs.