My Little Aviator

Karl's dream was to be a fighter pilot, but due to bad vision and meeting the love of his life at a very early age (yours truly), he let go of that dream and settled on a career choice that would keep him much closer to home and much safer.  I think he knew that certain love of his life wasn't fighter pilot wife's material.  I know he never lost that passion though.  I might have been the love of his life, but his first true love I'm fairly certain was war aircraft.  He is now passing that down to our little boy.  

It started one afternoon when he put on Top Gun for Cooper.  Cooper was completely enthralled.  As I watched the two of them glued to the tv and squealing with excitement over each flying scene, I remembered that I shouldn't be surprised...the first time I felt Cooper move when I was pregnant with him was during the opening scene of this movie.  I knew at that moment this child was going to be his daddy's boy, and he has done nothing but confirm that time and time again since he's been born!  

Shortly after that afternoon, "Fifi" came to visit.  She is the last flying B-29. We took our little man to meet her, but we all know this excursion was more for Karl than it was for Cooper.  The line to tour the plane was long and torturously slow moving.  We took turns playing with Cooper and waiting in line.  It was humid and hot, and I'm pregnant and not as impressed with aircraft as my husband, so I was pretty bored and a little annoyed to be standing in this endless line just so I could see a small portion of the inside of this plane.  Then I saw an elderly man step off the ladder from his turn in the plane.  He walked only a few steps away before turning back and just staring at this "beauty."  There was a very noticeable shimmer in his eye, and something in his prideful stance made it clear that this was more than just a B-29 aircraft, and I don't believe that was the first one he'd ever seen or the first time he'd stepped foot in one.  There was history there; more than likely it wasn't with "Fifi" herself, but I feel certain that a large piece of his history is within a similar aircraft a long time ago.  Every now and then he would either take a few more steps back or turn and walk away, only to stop and stare again.  He couldn't seem to peel himself away.  I found myself getting misty eyed watching him, and it made me much more happy to stand in that line so my two boys could explore something so special.  

Karl is loving that Cooper's newest obsession is planes.  One day he came home from work with a couple presents for himself Cooper.  Karl had trouble sharing and kept trying to take them from Cooper so he could "show him how to do it."  Bologna!

Little Man loves the three little airplanes he has, and many nights when I go to check on him before I go to sleep, I find that he has snuck out of his bed and gotten all three of them and put them in bed with him.  I'm just hoping he's dreaming of the aircraft themselves and not of becoming a fighter pilot.  I'm not exactly fighter pilot's mom material either.