Obsession

You know how people often proclaim themselves to be "proud card-carrying members" of organizations, well we've got two little boys that are proud car-carrying members of a little group I like to call The Crazy Children's Club! Now, Jax has always been obsessed with cars. Seriously! And, I don't just mean toy cars. I can clearly remember him leading us to our cars in crowded parking lots when he was 18 months old. He was able to recognize any friends' or family members' cars. Even friends' cars that he may have only seen once before. His awareness of brands and models at that young of an age was truly impressive, almost scary.

Well, it seems that Jax has passed on his car obsession to Baylor. While Baylor does not have the natural talent to lead us to our vehicles, he does share his brother's fascination with toy cars. It's rare to find one of the boys without a car of some sort in their hand. In fact, most of the time, they're both wandering around with 4-5 cars cradled in the their arms that they feel the need to protect from the other's evil grasp. There is a lot of whining involved when one of the boys manages to steal the other's highly prized vehicles, and what's sad is that I can now look at the car in question and immediately know who the car thief is and instruct him to return it to it's rightful owner.

When I really think about the car obsession, I have to wonder whether this is a learned or inherited trait. I mean, Grandfather definitely shows signs of the same obsession with his massive collection of Nascar and Disney Cars. Of course, the latter of those two could be blamed on Jax. He developed the Disney Cars obsession first, and then passed the condition on to Grandfather. So maybe this isn't a matter of genetics? It could be learned behavior. That would explain Baylor's new interest. He's just mimicking what big brother does. Either way, the situation is getting out of hand. If things continue to escalate, I will be forced to begin looking for Cars Anonymous groups with 12 step programs to a car-free life. If I can't find a group therapy session, I'm sure a specialist is available for hire, and I can probably get Grandfather, Jax, and Baylor a group discount!