Diggers are cool and it's nice to look pretty

James is obsessed, as are innumerable boys of all ages, with heavy machinery (or "diggers" as he calls them). Excavators, backhoes, steam rollers, garbage trucks, busses, airplanes, helicopters, and trains capture his attention immediately and linger in his thoughts for some time afterwords. Of course, since he loves these so much, we have encouraged this fascination with several books, toys, and an excited finger pointing to any digger we happen to pass in our travels. Yet we did nothing to encourage the inception of this interest: I am largely indifferent to heavy equipment (with the exception of trains) and, though we haven't discussed it, I've observed no special interest on Becky's behalf to such equipment. Many of our friends have commented that this is such a "boy" interest which, indeed, it is. Just today we met with our friends and their daughter, about James's age, and the difference was quite clear: James immediately noticed the enormous forklift operating near us while their daughter paid no attention. This of course leads the question of gender roles and expectations: is James already primed to be a truck-lovin' dirt-haulin' (and the corollary, beer-drinkin') kind of man? Probably to some extent this is what the world has told him, but more likely I think it's the fact that diggers are pretty cool. They operate on super-human scales, reshape the very land under them, and move with a grace that is otherwise unparalleled in the mechanical world. Becky & I have just unappreciated them all these years.

At the same time that James displays such boyish inclinations, he also loves to wear necklaces. One of his favorite treasures is the small box of Becky's jewelry: mostly sparkly and multi-colored bracelets and necklaces. He finds one he likes and tries sticking it to his neck until one of us helps him to properly put it on. He'll wear a shiny necklace for a whole day -- yesterday it was a thin silver thread with a turtle (of course) pendant. He's proud of his appearance with the necklace, showing it off and waiting for the, "Ohhh! So pretty!" comments from us. Then he grabs his nearest toy helicopter and walks around the house making machine noises for half an hour, donned in his prettiest jewelry. It is a beautiful thing to see this boy yet uninhibited by what the world tells him he should be, free to pursue whatever fancies he pleases.



For some of Jamie's machine sounds:
http://www.flattenedpenny.com/babyjames/Jamie_Machine_Sounds.mp3