Boys (er, MEN) will be Boys!

Dear Son, in all his boy-ness, has discovered Transformers. I owe it to McDonald's. I've indulged the kids a couple times in the past few weeks when they've been really well behaved while we ran morning errands. The most recent Happy Meal reward was this week. Dear Son noticed the Happy Meal Transformers display case within seconds of walking in the door. He spied the "rocket" and began to express with great intensity that he wanted one. I began trying to prepare him in case he didn't get a "rocket" in his Happy Meal, and I was secretly quite concerned about what would happen if he didn't. I don't know which one of us was the most delighted to discover that he did indeed get a Transformer "rocket" in his happy meal that day.

He's gotten two of these Transformer toys over the past few weeks. Each time he could not be separated from it for days solid. He fidgeted with it nonstop. It's a truck. No, it's a robot thing. No, it's a truck. Each time it transformed, a proud "I did it!" followed.

As Dear Husband and I lay in bed a few nights ago debriefing the events of our days, I commented on just how pleased our son was over his new discovery of Transformers. I described to Dear Husband the whole story of Son spying the "rocket" as soon as we walked in the door, and the relief I felt when I discovered one of his own tangled in French Fries in the bottom of the bag, and his delight each time he transformed it from a plane to a robot guy to a plane to a robot guy. I paused a moment before saying, "The plane's name is Lugnut..." and before I could finish with , "isn't that cute?" I was cut off by Dear Husband's enthusiastic, "Umm hmmm!" I noticed his enthusiasm, but went on to say, "I don't know what that little truck one is called that he got last time..." and I was again cut off with an enthusiastic, "Optimus Prime!"

Huh? Puzzled, I asked Dear Husband how he knew this stuff, and he stated matter-of-factly that he had watched the movie. Okay, so I was thinking he watched the movie in like 1980 or something and just had a really great boyhood memory of the experience. So to be sure, I then asked when he watched it. Because we've been married for 11 1/2 years after all, and I'VE never seen the movie, and I couldn't remember knowing when he might have. He said, "I borrowed it from Ron." Okay, again. So Ron is one of Husband's co-workers. This means he is also an adult male, and I would estimate him in his mid-forties or so.

I was equally puzzled and amused. You mean grown men in their mid-thirties and mid-forties still get into this stuff? You mean my two-year-old son can literally bond with his thirty-seven- (and a half)-year-old Daddy as if on a peer level about this Transformer thing?

Oy! Who knew? I'll have to order an extra Happy Meal next time.