turned 8 years old yesterday.
And after his older brother gave him a birthday present, I am seriously concerned about Lincoln reaching his 9th birthday with all his limbs in tact.
Or that Rachel will reach her 6th birthday with all her digits. Or that Prairie will turn 4 with all parts accounted for. (I am blaming Grandpa for giving my 10-year-old this whole “Let’s give my brother a machete for his birthday” idea).
Of course, Lincoln is thrilled with his machete, and Sidney is a thoughtful (if dangerous) gift-giver. I will feel better about it after I’ve gone over the “101 Rules of Machete Use,” perhaps having Lincoln write them as handwriting practice and commit them to memory.
Sid built Lincoln a work table, and we gave him a drill with a set of bits, and the book, Worshop for Kids. Sid will outfit Lincoln’s work table later with extra tools he has, and I am hoping to get scrap wood from a local cabinetmaker. I can’t wait to learn with Lincoln and build some of these projects! That book makes working with tools look so easy that I think even “I” could learn from it.
Lincoln requested the usual birthday dirt cake.
I surprised him by loading the top with dirt moving machines instead of the usual gummy worms.
And then, because I realized there are few pictures of me with the children, and the children may one day like to know that I existed, I decided to make a new tradition of taking a picture of me and the birthday child.
My Lincoln is scrumptiously tenderhearted and giving. Studying the papers that came with his new drill, he said, “This says, ‘Win $50,000.’ Wow. Imagine that . . . .$50,000.”
“Yeah, Lincoln. Imagine that. What would you buy if you had $50,000,” I asked.
“Oh, I’d probably buy Sidney a hovercraft or an electric scooter.”
“Really? What else would you buy?”
“I’d probably buy the girls something, maybe one of those cars, the big, plastic kind they can get in and drive around because I know those are expensive.”
“What else would you buy?”
“Well, I guess I’d buy something for myself, of course.”
And last week, when Lincoln and I dropped by the library, I told him to go find some books for himself. The first place he headed toward was the science section. He picked out several books for Sidney, and then, because Science isn’t his main interest, he headed off to find something for himself.
That’s my Lincoln — tenderhearted and putting others before himself. I adore this kid.
Prairie Sings 
Happy Birthday, Lincoln!
I think it is a most excellent idea to have your picture taken w/ the birthday child. It was you, after all, that did all the work on that day.
We also have one of those Grandpa Louis machetes. Josh took it out on the front porch one night at 11:30 and started playing with it (practicing to see how fast he could draw it out of the holster and wave it around in a menacing fashion) and sliced open his pinkie. We had to go the the emergency room and have it stitched up. The boy made it 18 years without going to the emergency room and breaks his streak a day before he leaves for college.
I am not a fan of those machetes.
Oh, Rita, that probably made Josh’s leaving for college a lot harder!
I admit, I struggle with allowing my boys to learn to be men. They always want to do things that seem so dangerous to me! Though some of their ideas are pure dangerous folly, but some of their desires are the right and natural inclination to be like their Dad.
Raising the girls doesn’t put nearly as much fear into me!
Tina