I’m not sure if there is anything more important to a kid than toys. Sometimes I wish life was still that simple. I’m still very much obsessed with toys to this day, but none quite compare to the “treasures” I had as a child.

There are a few specific toys from my childhood, that I still spend a considerable amount of time “playing” with in my mind. One of those toys I’m ashamed to admit was one of those stupid pens that had multiple colors of ink to choose from. I’m not talking about one of those dorky green/red/blue/black jobs. I’m talking like MULTI colors! Who doesn’t need yellow ink? Who cares if the pen was so fat that you could hardly hold it? I remember insisting that Santa HAD to get me this pen (I pretended to believe in the fat jolly-man, because I was convinced that my participation in the big Christmas lie would greater increase the possibility that the Santa-rents would get me what I wanted). My memory of using this pen though, is not nearly as extensive as my memory of the anticipation. Don’t get me wrong. It was a great pen! Loads of fun, but it could NEVER live up to it’s expectation.

My second favorite toy differs greatly from the first. First of all, my eager spirit for this toy, paled in comparison to actually owning this priceless treasure. Second, I’m thoroughly convinced, that if I could find this toy again, I’d still play with it today. You have to understand. This was NO ordinary toy. This was every young boys dream! This was the MOST amazing toy GUN ever made! It was probably 10 guns in all, that all pieced together to make one giant killing machine. It served every purpose a kid “soldier” could need. Complete with grenade-darts (which could be launched!) and fake bullets, it was all a boy could ever want. Can you feel the excitement??? I’ll be totally honest and let you know, that I still spend time on the internet looking for this gun! Though I may never find it again...you can trust me on this…IT WILL NEVER DIE!!!

Now that I’ve become a father, my appreciation of toys has reached an entirely new level. I’ve re-discovered “toy-joy”. Here’s an example. A few weeks ago, my friend in brown dropped off a gi-normous package at our house. Even with the understanding that this particular package was NOT addressed to me, I still found myself overcome with childlike excitement. Once we got it all opened up, we found the baby-swing that we had registered for, but had decided we weren’t getting. I was overwhelmed and completely excited. You have to understand, Jessie Rose LOVES to swing. Some days, that’s the only way to make her happy. We’ll just stick her in the swing and let her go for hours…literally. If that makes us bad parents…oh well. Screaming baby + stay at home dad = desperate measures. You also have to understand, that the original swing we had, was a piece of crap. It was dirty, and partially broken, and had a magical ability to kill batteries within minutes. Needless to say, this new shiny swing, was a welcome addition to the Norvell house.

Discovering my daughters love for a few of her favorite toys, has me VERY excited about a life full of spoiling my beautiful little girl.