Bring back my wife!

Years ago, during the Christmas when Noah was 3 1/2 years old and Jack was about 17 months old, Jack received a Fisher Price Noah’s Ark set.

If you are a parent, you might already be seeing a point of contention for the children — Jack received a Noah’s Ark set, and Noah did not.

Now, first, before I continue, I must interject that we are pretty strict on that certain toys aren’t owned by certain children. Like a commune, apparently, toys are typically owned by the collective. We typically say for the first couple of days, the first owner can really OWN it. After that, it is pretty much community property. There have been a few exceptions to this, if that makes sense, given whatever the circumstances may be. These generally rules have really only come to be in the last several years. Really, before this story took place.

Okay, so back to the Ark.

This idea of Noah’s Ark not belonging to our son Noah was very confusing to him. He would say, “No, it’s MY Ark. Noah’s Ark.” We finally explained to him, and thought it got through, one day that the little old man Little People person in the set was ALSO named Noah, and it was his Ark that God told him to build.

After that, there was peace in our home.

That is, of course, until one day when they started questioning who the female Little People person was. We told them that it was “Noah’s wife.” And, really, it was still okay for a day or so. Then the next day when they were playing, Jack kept trying to take the female and hide her. Finally, he just put it in his hands and started running.

Noah quickly jumped up and shouted, “BRING BACK MY WIFE! BRING…ME…BACK…MY…WIFE!”

I have seen a lot of things that have tickled my funny bone in my life, but amongst the top of the list have to be a 3 1/2 year old shouting to a 17 month old to “bring back his wife.”

After things settled down (e.g. we stopped laughing, we re-explained this whole “Noah’s wife” business, and stopped the boys from fighting), Eric and I both came to the conclusion that we hoped we would have to see that scene play out with our boys again. Because, while funny as toddlers, it would not really be so amusing between adults.