You'll shoot your eye out kid!

So....I dreaded this day.  The day Haddon got a gun.  And it came a lot sooner than I expected.  He started requesting one about Christmas time last year when we watched "A Christmas Story" the movie.  It's a family favorite around here...for obvious reasons. :) I've been putting it off, but I guess fatherly pride always wins out when it comes to their boys.  Joel insisted that we needed to get it for his 10th birthday this year.  I held out as long as I could...I even went so far as to buy him different gifts.  But I could tell all he really wanted was the gun, so I conceded.  While standing in the aisle at WalMart, I weighed my options heavily.  The air speed of the guns varied, with The Red Ryder being the lowest.  Of course I wanted that one!  I called Joel to verify which one we were getting...vetoed!  No son of his is going to have a 'sissy' gun - the top air speed one was his pick.  Ack.  Joel was thrilled with the purchase, and I was biting my nails, especially after the hunting sales associate explained to me the difference in air speeds.  The higher the speed, the deeper the 'penetration' of the bb upon impact.  I was seriously doubting the comedy factor of our 'favorite movie' at this point.

The day of his birthday was a Sunday, and Grandma and Grandpa Thueson were visiting for the weekend because of a cousin's wedding.  They had taken him the day before to pick out his gift, which was, of course, a full arsenal Nerf gun.  Before church, I presented him with a Darth Vader alarm clock, and a stack of classic mystery novels (Frankenstein, The Time Machine, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).  This boy still loves to read!  He was happy with them, but I could tell he was a bit disappointed...which is why church couldn't end fast enough for me! We rushed home and got a big lunch ready.  During lunch, Joel brought out 'THE' gift.  Grins from ear to ear.  On both of them.  Lots of talk from me and grandma about how not to use the gun, i.e. on your sisters, in the backyard, at all! Joel of course was the proud papa straight out of the movie, beaming when Haddon loaded the barrel with bb's and begged to let him shoot it just once in the backyard.  Literally, I had a moment of terror when I realized my baby was about to go shoot a weapon.  I couldn't watch, until Joel made me look out the kitchen window to see what was going on...

It was kind of adorable, for what it was.  For the record, the girls were all safely in the house, and we made sure he was shooting away from anything that could be injured/damaged.  Once again, Joel was a proud papa when Haddon shot a bb straight through the target and they found it lodged in the new fence behind.  (yikes).  The following weekend, Joel took Friday off so that the two of them could go on a proper hunting overnight trip...they didn't get anything, but Haddon got to shoot to his hearts content, and both mighty hunters came home thrilled the next day from their adventure.  And no eyes have been shot out, so I guess my worry was for nothing! ;) Happy birthday to my 10 year old mighty hunter...It's official, I'm raising a kid that's ALL BOY.