A Story About a Kid, Toys, Music... and Protesting.

Well, for those of you who might not have realized it, my little dude turned 11 just over a week ago.  He is such a funny guy, quirky in his own way.  I can definitely not say that is "just like other kids."  Last night was a particularly humorous evening for me (with him) and I just had to share.

First of all, one of his Christmas presents from me was a Toys R Us gift card.  Now, he never really asks for toys, since he seems to want to live his entire life with some electronic device, so I would never go out and pick toys on my own for him.  But I thought there was this slim chance that if I bought a gift card to a toy store that he might actually choose to get TOYS instead of wandering into the electronics section to get a video game.  Those of you who really know him are thinking "yeah right."  Which, I must say, was sort of what I was thinking.  But he surprised me!  After making a full scan of ALL available toys (yes - I mean all), he ended up choosing these dragon toys.  I don't even know what they are called but they come in different sizes and they have dragons and fighter guys.  The best part was that they were on sale, so with his gift card he was able to get like 14 of these things in various sizes.  So we get through the checkout line where he is grinning from ear to ear as the cashier puts all the toys into a giant bag.  We arrive home and he quickly heads upstairs, dragging the bag of toys behind him. 

He is up there for at least three hours, only stopping to come downstairs for dinner.  I checked on him a few times and his bedroom floor is covered with toys - apparently these dragons require assembly.  So he is diligently working.  At one point I went in his room to put away laundry and he asks me if I can come help him assemble.  I tell him that I will finish what I am doing and if he still needs help, I will be there.  A little later he comes down to see if I am ready to help.  I am confused on why it is taking him so long to assemble these so I ask if he is doing other things at the same time (like playing on the computer).  This is where he informs me that he was commenting on a blog.  This is the dialogue from there...


ME:  Commenting on a blog? What kind of blog?
HIM: Well not a blog.  It's a forum.  For Roblox (this online lego game he plays).
ME: Well what are you commenting about?
HIM: Well, the developers did an update to the software and now you can't build anything unless you pay the membership fees.  Which is dumb.  So we are all commenting about how dumb it is because it is supposed to be a FREE game, and you only have to pay to get extra stuff.  Not to just build.  So its kind of like a protest.  
ME:  A protest?
HIM:  Yeah, like we are protesting the update and hoping that the developer will take the update away if we all protest enough.  
ME: Wow.  
HIM: Yeah.   I mean, if you look at the URL of the website, it says right there... FreeGames.Roblox.Com (or something like that - don't quote me on this part).  So how can it say that on the URL and then charge you to do anything?!  It's dumb.  So anyway, the forum has reached its comment limit so we can't protest anymore there.  So now I am just building the dragons.  So, are you going to come help me?
ME: Umm... yeah.

I am not kidding you!  The dialogue went exactly like that!  That kid cracks me up!  So anyway, I go upstairs, we build the rest of the dinosaurs and then as I am leaving the room, he asks if it is okay for him to close his bedroom door.  I say sure.  I head back downstairs, sit on my couch with a book and that's when I hear it.  He has plugged his iPod into the computer speakers and is jamming to the song "Youth of the Nation".  Not just once, but at least 20 times.  It would end, another song would start playing for about a minute then there would be a pause... and there it was again... "We are, we are... the youth of the nation..." Catchy tune...

So I sat downstairs, smiling at the fact that my 11 year old was above me, caught somewhere between a kid playing with dragons and a teenager jamming to rock music.  And possibly working on becoming some sort of protesting journalist for all I know.