Ice Cream Wavers

With the boys both playing soccer this summer, it has become a tradition to get ice cream at our Baskin Robbins on the way home.  There is a hummock just outside the door, with a large tree with gigantic roots sticking up, making perfect hollows to sit in.  This grassy knoll is on a busy street, and it has become a game for the boys to wave at cars driving by.

Being competitive brothers (was that redundant?), they have made a contest out of it.  They take turns waving at the cars, and if they get a wave in return (even a little finger lift, just not that middle one all by itself), the waver gets a point for each person in the car to return the salute.  2 points for a honk.

There are no prizes, just the satisfaction of beating your brother at something as meaningless as "who gets more waves".  This reminds me a lot of the color car game played by the boy and the old man at the end of the animated movie "UP".



A couple of times, we have run into soccer teammates there, and even on very warm days, they have persuaded the other child to come out and sit with them, and play the waving game,

One time Teddy decided it was *too hot* outside, and sat inside in the AC.  After Barley headed out to the tree, DH leaned over and whispered to Teddy, "You know he's winning, right?"

Teddy rolled his eyes in frustration, laughed, and headed right out to the tree.  DH and I laughed, and we sat outside in the heat too. 

The boys have always been amazing at making up games to entertain themselves.  DH and Barley were out in the hot tub once, and DH counted 15 different games that Barley made up using floating plastic cups, and his toy boat.  Our favorite was "depth charge".  He would capture air under the cup, bring it under the boat, and try to knock the boat over with the released air bubble.

We used to play the "Plane, Motorcycle, Bus, Police Car" game.  Basically you get a point for spotting any unusual vehicle while driving, until you have 3 points, then you "win".  This was one of those hippie "new games", noncompetitive, because everyone was allowed to win.  You just kept going until you got to 3, and it didn't matter who got there first.

Teddy invented a story of "The Rainbow Beetle".   The premise was that there was only one Beetle car in the world, and it kept changing colors.  So if you saw a red one, then a white one, it was really the same car, just changing colors and speeding up to fool you. 

So, years of video games and TV have not totally destroyed their imaginations.  I love this reminder that they can still entertain themselves, even in simple settings like eating ice cream under a tree, waving at the world as it goes by.

That is summertime.