Growing up we had a hall tree in our basement (I think that’s what my parents called it) stacked to the top with hats of all shapes and themes on multiple hooks.  A cowboy hat, of course, along with a train conductor’s floppy cap and even a wide-brimmed nylon one that folded into a small flat circle and fit inside a matching purse.  I struggled countless times trying to collapse this hat perfectly back to form.  Wore it during musical performances and other make-believe stuff that my sister, my friends and I concocted.  We even had bongo drums, a guitar, piano and one of those loose-limbed wooden puppets that dances on a board you tap.  And even better, my dad put up hooks on the ceiling for a trapeze bar that we would flip off of onto HUGE pillows my mom made and stuffed with so much filling it would be too expensive at the fabric store today.  The bar area my parents put in before children had one shelf lined with numerous cork-topped glass jars filled to the brim with bite-sized candy.  So began my fascination with chocolate-covered mints wrapped in green and silver foil.  Growing up I had the “fun” basement.  The place no other kid could believe a dad and mom would create.  Perhaps, only realizing it at this moment, I have attempted to recreate the magic for my two.  Our basement currently has countless toy bins, costumes and hats, a classroom with wooden desks and a dry erase board on one wall, a video game system and 6-foot inflatable bounce house that holds 250 pounds.  To answer your next thought:  no, I do not jump on it.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 44