Learning to 'boom-boom'

comments (1) May 23rd, 2011 in Project Gallery

Dreamcatcher, member

Uh-oh... boom, boom dada! She saw the piece that had broken off my bench and knew it would take a hammer to fix it.

boom-boom, boom-boom I just gave her a hammer and let her go at it on some scrap blocks..... shes a natural carpenter!

I dont know what exactly she was trying to make but she was sure determined to build something.

ooooh, dada she thought the bright 6ds were quite pretty.

While she was successful at hitting the nail on the head, she couldnt hit it with quite enough force to drive it so daddy had to help.

"Uh-oh... boom, boom dada!" She saw the piece that had broken off my bench and knew it would take a hammer to fix it.

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For a couple of months now I have been spending my evenings building my home shop and it has been rewarding to me that my 1-1/2 year old daughter is excited to hang out with me as I work on the shop.

Mostly she likes to just sweep up - which in actuality is usually just her dragging a broom behind her - but I'll take whatever help I can get when it comes to sweeping. After a good sweep, she's usually ready for a roll around the shop in one of my two repurposed office chairs on casters. Usually just the oval track around the tables saw and bench but on occasion I will sit in the other chair and we play bumper cars. Lastly before mommy comes and gets her for bath time I turn up the shop radio so she can dance on my workbench.

The photos show one night when she stopped dancing mid-song to point out a piece of my bench that had broken off. Not only did she recognize where the piece should go, she instinctually knew what tool to use to fix it. "Uh-oh boom-boom, dada!." she said pointing at the piece. Having not recognized her using the words "boom-boom" before I asked her what she meant. She pointed to the piece of wood then pointed to the corner where the missing piece left a notch in the bench top. "Yeah, daddy's bench is broken isn't it?" I told her "that's okay". "No, boom-boom dada" she said, now standing up and pointing to the hammer rack on the back wall.

I was elated. My daughter knew exactly what the hammers on the wall were used for. So, I enthusiastically grabbed a couple of smaller hammers off the wall, and some blocks of wood for her to pound together.

My baby daughter is a natural carpenter and daddy couldn't be more proud.

posted in: Project Gallery, workshop, hammer, bench, nail, daughter

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Comments (1)

KevinW writes: Love the story. One of my daughter's first words was "hmer" - her version of hammer. She became a biologist, not a carpenter, but she did take a set of tools to college and was the go-to girl in her dorm whenever something needed fixing.
Posted: 9:43 am on July 4th

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