Claire Explains It All: The Heart of a Child

This was too sweet not to share. And I am sure in a few weeks I will completely forget it ever happened and I want to remember how sweet Gavin is in every day moments like this.

So our son is completely obsessed with robots right now. Mickey is his best best buddy but robots are just a complete fascination with him. Chad and I searched high and low and can you believe in these days of advanced technology there are no robots to be found for a little two year old boy to have and to hold? We found a stuffed toy robot a few months back at Target and Gavin has really loved that thing but I know a robot that moves and lights up would just blow his mind. We wanted to give him one for Christmas but there just wasn't one that fit what we were looking for. So alas, we went robot-less for Christmas. And I have to say, he survived just fine.

But today I took my weekly, sometimes daily, trip to Hobby Lobby. They are trying to get rid of the last remains of their Christmas loot. Ninety percent off of flatten bows, glitter-less glitter ornaments and apparently a very sad and very broken robot-looking nutcracker sort of thing. I don't even understand what it is supposed to be or how it is in any way a Christmas item. But there it was, lodged among all the other Christmas decoration rejects and my son spotted him the minute we wheeled down the aisle. "Robot, Mama!! Robot, Mama!!" I am not an advocate of getting Gavin something every time we go to the store. If that were the case, we couldn't afford to eat. But I do let him hold whatever it is he is fascinated with at the time and he can hold it the whole time I am shopping and then when it is time to check out, we have to put that object back. We say goodbye to it and promise to see it the next time we are in the store. For instance, at Target there is a birthday card that has a robot on it and every time we go into Target, we have to go to the card section and get that 'robot book' as Gavin calls it. We wheel all over Target and Gavin reads his robot book and when I am done shopping we put it back with promises to see it next time. Let's face it, it is Target. He gets to see that thing every week.

So he sees this sad excuse for a robot in Hobby Lobby and I have every intention of just letting him hold it and then we are going to put it back on the shelf. I have no use for a nutcracker much less one that is an orange robot. So as I am looking for the right color paint, Gavin is talking to this robot. He is playing with it and the arm falls off. I tell him to be careful with it because he is broken. We continue shopping and Gavin starts telling me "Mama, I no want to put him back. I want to take him home and fix him." I have to say, this is the first time he has ever rejected putting a toy back. He has always been so good at putting it back without even as much as a peep. But I am listening to my son talk about how he wants to fix this toy and I am looking at him holding it so lovingly. I mean, this thing was just pathetic. Both of his eyes were gone, he had one arm, his "bolts" on his head were all gone but one. There was no way anyone else was going to buy this ugly thing much less love it as much as Gavin was right then. So I caved. I told him we would take him home and fix him. We found some eyes for him and some new bolts. A little paint and some glue and he would be good as new. Gavin was SO excited. He was telling the robot the whole time that he was going to 'the new house'. (That is what he calls home.) He had every lady in Hobby Lobby wooing and awing over him and that ugly robot. It ended up being a whopping $1.00 with the 90 percent discount. On the way home, Gavin had him in his lap and I heard him tell the robot, "It will be ooooookay. We will fix you and you will be okay." Seriously, I almost cried.

We got him home and glued his arm back on, painted his new parts and glued them on as well. We put his eyes on and let him sit for a few hours. After his 'nap', the robot was ready to get all the hugs and button pushes from Gavin he could handle. He is still so ugly but Gavin has taken him upstairs, fed him water and showed him all the robot apps on the iPad. The best dollar I have ever spent.

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