Birdhouse in your soul

This morning, as Jack and I were blearily waking up to our morning beverages (black coffee for me, whole milk straight up for Jack) we were watching "Blues Clues" on the couch. Blue and the dorky guy (no, not him - the other dorky guy) were trying to teach a lesson about patience, which as regular readers know is not one of Jack's go-to traits.

As Blue and The Dork were waiting for a bird to hatch, they built a birdhouse. I didn't think much of it until after the episode was over. Because at that point, Jack marched into the living room, put his shoes on (left shoe on right foot, natch), and collected his "Bob the Builder" toolkit, which includes hardhat, hammer, screwdriver, wrench and pliers. He stood at the front door and said "OUTSIDE, DADDY!!" When I asked him why, he said "Birdhouse in the tree!"

So I opened the door and out he marched to one of his favorite places in the world - under the holly tree in our front yard. There he proceeded to "hammer" the trunk and use all of his other tools to build the perfect imaginary birdhouse. When he was finished, Roxana had arrived, and he was ready after a strong session of carpentry to come inside and have a hearty breakfast.

I built a birdhouse once, in 9th grade shop class. I got an A-, which I was very proud of. Jack just topped the old man. Again.