boys will be boys

Lately I have been taking the boys on walks each afternoon. Usually our next door neighbor, Jeremy, comes with us. He and Jed are such good friends and they have so much fun together. Jed and Jeremy will ride their bikes while I push Hank in the stroller or pull him in the wagon, and they love to explore ahead of me and then loop back to tell me what they've discovered or drop off any cans they've picked up. 

Friday we were almost home when my neighbor passed us and stopped to say hello. I chatted with him for a few minutes and then we were interrupted by an overjoyed "Wow! Awesome!" from the big boys. We looked up to see that Jed and Jeremy had found a DEAD SQUIRREL in the road and were throwing it up in the air by its tail. 

Yes, you read that right. They would take turns grabbing the dead thing by its tail and tossing it into the air. When it would land with a rubbery thud, they would whoop and holler and cheer and then grab it and lob it into the air again.

It was all I could do not to barf. But they were having SO much fun! I hated to get mad at them for something that really was innocent fun. And, thankfully it was chilly enough that they were both wearing gloves or mittens. So it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I made them pose for the picture (which, disappointingly, does not capture their exhilaration at all) and then they gave it a farewell toss into the gutter and we headed for home. I asked them "was that cool, or gross?" Jeremy told me "It was so cool! And the best part was we didn't even have to kill it!"