Up, Up and AWAY!!!

In the last 2 weeks, Roman has developed a love of airplanes. And I don't mean a small crush, I'm talking an obsessive, all-encompassing infactuation with planes. He can hear the engines in the sky and spot them out miles away. It started innocently enough with the back cover of his previously favorite book, Trucks, by Byron Barton. (A must have for all little boys). The back cover lists other books by Byron, including the innocuously titled "Planes". Maurice and I figured it couldn't hurt to expand his reading to include other board books, so I picked up a small-sized Planes one afternoon after work. And so it began....

First it was just the book. We would read it nightly, 6-7 times, and after one of us finished reading it, the other would have to read it. By night 3, we could all recite the book, with Roman prompting each page. Then we took the tike to ToysRUs (I can't help it, I'm a traditionalist. If you want toys, go to the source. I know Target and WalMart are cheaper, but what beats wall-to-wall dolls, trucks, train sets and Slip-N-Slides?) In the store, we found two minature planes, which he promptly latched on to so tight that a full meltdown ensued when we went to pay and had to pry it from his hands.

Minature planes gave way to wanting the real thing, and while my nephews were here visiting Roman, we made a trip down by the airport to see them at the hotel. I thought he was going to have a heart attack in the backseat with all the aircrafts overhead! We had to stand outside for 20 min before we saw the family while he announced each one as they passed by.

My parents, however, have nutured this love into full-blown insanity with two things. The first is a full glider, complete with a 3-ft wingspan, that they bought him last weekend. I don't have pictures, but when they called up to let me know about it, a frantic and deranged Roman was singing in falsetto about the "ai-pains"! The second is a trick of old from my Dad - his paper airplane fleet. When I was little, Dad made these weekly and we flew them til they lost their wings. He made them for Roman too, and let's just say, he enjoyed them as well.



I thought you'd enjoy :)

The family goes on vacation in early August to Puerto Rico for almost a week and I'm sure the highlight will be our time in the airports to and from. Hopefully he'll find riding in an airplane as exciting as watching one fly by...or at least half as exciting as the paper planes from Big Daddy!