Saurs
Greetings to everyone.
No, saurs is not the Asian coronavirus. This is the name Xavier calls dinosaurs.
In the early 1990s I worked with a woman who sold Discovery Toys as a second job. This generally meant she would either host a toy party or invite someone to host the party. It was like a Tupperware party, only with educational children's toys. She also fished in the pool of office workers.
I was just thirty at the time, maybe thirty-one. Though unmarried and with no prospects at the time, still I imagined myself taking a wife and having children of my own. I entertained such an idea from my very young years. To that end, even into my mid thirties, I kept many of my toys I had as a child: my collections of Lego, Hot Wheels cities, a castle with siege equipment, children's books.
When Liz circulated a catalog at work, a set of Mini-Dinos caught my eye. I thought, "My son would love those! We could learn to count with them, learn colors, study set theory, and just have fun with them." (yes, those thoughts actually ran through my mind). So, I bought a box.
As years went on, my prospects of marriage seemed to grow less and less. In my early forties I boxed up all the children's books I had been saving, the Hot Wheels city, the castle, the Lego and nearly everything else and gave it to my then seven year old nephew. I held on to the Mini-Dinos, however.
Last night Xavier found the box in his closet. "Saurs!" he exclaimed. Excitedly, he pulled it from the shelf and wanted me to help him open it. Together, we opened the box and pulled out the thirty-some very colorful dinosaurs. It did not take long for Xavier to identify his favorite ones: the pteranodons.
We played with these the rest of the night. We flew them around the house. They rode on the train Xavier got for Christmas. They hid in caves, then jumped out to scare Daddy. They ate second dinner with Xavier. When Xavier went to bed, he took two of the six with him.
At one point, the pteranodons so inspired Xavier that we both were crawling around on our hands and knees chasing each other and roaring loudly. This with two or three little pteranodons in our hands. We "attacked" one another, crawled through imaginary forests, and not-so-imaginary cloth tunnels, tents and pillow forts. Xavier even put in Ice Age: Age of the Dinosaurs to play in the background as we roared around the basement.
Xavier calls his pteranodons by the same sound his gives them: "Caws." These toys have been educational, indeed. Who knew that pteranodons made a "caw-caw" sound as they flew? I didn't until last night.