Seize the Day!

We Moms of toddlers, we're shameless opportunists. From learning opportunities at the grocery store (can you stack the cereal boxes?) to potential new playmates at the park to fun (and free!) activities, we're always on the lookout for the next thing to keep our little guys and gals happy, occupied, and out of trouble.

So, when I ran across this scene in our neighborhood the other day, I knew I'd scored.

Do you know what that is? I do. It's an excavator. Or, as MJ would say, a white "excabator".

For those who don't know, MJ is fully obsessed with construction. It all started with his second birthday party and it's just steamrolled from there.

The first thing MJ says to me when he wakes up in the morning isn't, "good morning" or "hi, Mommy" - it's the name of whatever piece of construction equipment du jour he wants me to hand to him before even getting out of his crib. Likewise, the last thing he says to me at night is a pleading request to take said piece of equipment with him to bed.

"Take dumptruck to bed?" he'll squeak.

When I turn him down, he'll try another toy, and another, and another - until he's rattled off an impressive list of equipment like he's a foreman taking inventory at a build site.

And pretty much every moment in between those two is devoted to construction. He wants to play with his bulldozer in the sandbox. He wants to take the excavator to school. He wants to put his chicken nuggets in the dump truck during dinner and he wants to give the cement mixer a bath before bed.

Naturally, when I saw a real, live construction site near our home, I was thrilled. This would be so fun!

I hurried home, loaded MJ into the stroller, and told him we were going for a walk. I didn't mention the awaiting excavator, just in case the crew took off before we arrived. I made that mistake once with a cement mixer pouring concrete near my parent's home. By the time I got him down the block, it was gone. For the rest of the day he was asking where the "ment mixer" was and I felt like the world's meanest Mom for not being able to deliver.

Luckily, when we arrived, the excavator was still there in all its glory!

And so was a tree trimming truck.

 And a tractor/mulcher thing.

And a mini bulldozer of sorts.

Yep, we'd hit the construction jackpot. Just look at the rapt attention with which MJ is watching the crew.

He was enthralled.

We sat there and watched the excavator and the bulldozer work for quite some time. The excavator would pick up tree roots and toss them. It would scrape up dirt and shove it around. And the bulldozer would push bark, sticks, and dirt.

We weren't exactly sure what they were actually doing. I think they were removing the remainder of an old tree stump for a landscaping project. Still, it didn't matter. It was construction. And it was right in front of us.

 It's an excabator, Mommy. Is a BIG excabator.

MJ could have stayed there all day watching this. Literally. But, after about half an hour, I figured we were probably creeping the crew out and decided we should pack up and be on our way.

MJ needed a warning that his fun was coming to an end soon. So, we set our handy cell phone timer for four minutes and once it went off, we said bye bye to each machine.

 Buh bye, white excabator....

MJ spent much of the ride home like this....

...head craned backward to get every last glimpse of the machines before they disappeared from view. And he talked about them all the way home. Once we got home, he bounded happily out of the stroller and went inside to tell Daddy all about our adventure.

And that, Mommies and Daddies, is how you seize the day!