“Daddy! It’s Delivery Day!”
6:15 this morning, Zacharie came running into our room saying those words with excitement.
No baby was getting delivered. It’s not Halloween or Christmas. Yet a full 45 minutes before his wake up call for school, my son couldn’t sleep.
“I’m just so excited, Daddy!”
For what? Our new fridge and stove. Yup. My son is thrilled for the delivery of appliances because they come in big boxes. And this time, there will be two of them.
Last year we bought a new chest freezer and for the better part of two months the box and its styrofoam bits were in our playroom as a submarine, spaceship, clubhouse. Eventually it was tossed (to much dismay from the boys), but now the ultimate toy ever created – the huge empty cardboard box will return.
The boys negotiated over breakfast what their boxes would become and agreed Zacharie would get the fridge box while Charlie would get the one from the stove. One will be upstairs, one will be in the basement, and for the next 3 weeks I’m not expecting to hear “Daddy, can I watch a show?” or “Daddy, can I be on an iPad?” because why would you want to be when there’s a clubhouse/spaceship/submarine in the house?
Give a kid an iPad and you’ll amuse him for awhile. Give that kid a cardboard box and you will feed his imagination forever. It is, simply, the best toy of all time.