They're Not Craftsman, but...
Greetings to all.
As mentioned in a previous post, Xavier picked up a small workbench with tools at a recent MOPS sale. Though not the kind of workbench Dad uses every day—an electronic one providing a desk and tools to manage software—still a nice bench all the same. It lay in its packaging Friday and Saturday. Sunday after breakfast, we headed to Middle Earth to set it up.
When we picked the set up Friday, Xavier did not know what Dad was doing. We were on our way out, walking the aisles one last time. Dad thought "Look at all the aisles with girls' toys. Where are the boys' toys?"
Then Dad thought "I wonder if we can find a tool set?!" Scanning the aisles, one table across the room held promise. With Xavier in tow, we weaved our way through the crowds to get to it.
Two were left. The first we examined had its plastic wrapping broken and appeared to be missing quite a few items. We moved on the next one, which on first glance looked worse off than the first, but that was a deceptive look. Poking around and peeking in through the packaging as much as we could, we determined it was the better of the two. We snatched it up before someone else grabbed it from under our noses.
That, by the way, is not much of an exaggeration. Earlier, Xavier and I were exploring a kitchen console—Xavier unhappy the microwave was nothing more than a facade, a cheesey, non-functional panel that didn't even beep when pushing a number. A woman came right up to it, grabs one of the MOPS workers and asked "Can you put a hold on this item? I need to call to see if it's what we want." All this while Xavier and I were actively looking at it.
Sunday, as we sat on the floor to open the packaging, Xavier realized what treasure it held inside. He helped rip the shrink-wrap away, and grew anxious when Dad had to get up to retrieve a pair of scissors to cut through the packing tape.
Once open and the two doors swung out, Xavier found the large Zip-Lock bag holding all the tools. He opened the bag, dumped out its content and went straight to work. The kit had two hammers, a screwdriver, wrench, a little vise, bolts, hex nuts, clothespin-like "nails", angle brackets, a wooden rule, and several slats of wood.
He took up the screwdriver and a screw, instantly setting the blade into the slot and started turning it. I wondered where he learned that, then I thought "Oh yeah. He has watched Dad do this same thing when replacing batteries in many of his toys." He spent a couple of hours with it Sunday. Today, getting up in the morning and after his nap, he ran for Middle Earth to find his tool set and play.