"I'd Like To Meet Him"

Last Wednesday, Eliot came home from my in-law's house with two different copies of local newspapers. On the cover of one of them, was a photo of an antique bulldozer and a story about the man who owns it.

The title of the article was: “Backhoe Gene” afflicts Maguire.

The first two paragraphs of the article (written by Gordon Vincent in the Middlesex East newspaper) are below:

In construction parlance, it’s known as the “backhoe gene.” And those who have it are aware of it at a very early age.

For Woburn’s Kevin Maguire, evidence of the backhoe gene emerged when he was just 5 or 6 years old. Maguire, who now operates his own construction business, remembers Route 93 being built during his formative days and being enthralled by watching the trucks.

The article went on to tell about Mr. Maguire's childhood experiences and also explained how he is now in a group called the Northeast RockBusters, a group of of construction equipment aficionados. That group was going to be at the Burlington Truck Day the coming Sunday.

Eliot's response to the photo on the cover and my Mother-in-Law's explanation of the article?

"I'd like to meet him." (Very profound for a 3 year old!)

So, this past Sunday, we set out to see all the trucks at Burlington Truck day, but with a particular goal in mind; to meet Mr. Maguire.

We went nice and early with our newspaper article in hand. Alas, we found Mr. Maguire's station. We explained to Eliot that this was the man from the newspaper and Mr. Maguire even agreed to get his photo taken with Eliot. He even gave Eliot a magazine (catalog) of diggers. Eliot LOVES that magazine!

Mr. Maguire asked us "So you think he has the backhoe gene?"

I think, without question, Eliot has the backhoe gene. I think either his second or third word was "digger." It's funny the article said you know if you have the gene by age 5 or 6. I think we knew Eliot had it before he turned 2!

I can't wait to see how my Eliot's backhoe gene develops.

And some photos from the other trucks there on truck day:

Happy (Almost) 3rd Birthday, Eliot!

This past weekend we celebrated Eliot's 3rd birthday. We had (surprise!) a construction truck theme-- orange, black & yellow colors. I felt particularly guilty because I didn't have the time this year to design my own mega-cake so we hired a co-worker of Ted's to do it for us. Everyone thought it was pretty awesome- especially Eliot. Still feeling guilty, but maybe a tad less so.

I even bought him a custom made shirt from Etsy to wear for the occasion:

We kept it simple at had pizza (delicious pizza, I might add). Eliot had so much fun running around and playing with his cousins. He definitely had a wonderful party-- and the weather couldn't have been any more perfect if we tried. I guess September isn't a bad month to have a birthday.



When Ted asked him the following day what his favorite present was he replied "All of them." He's such a sweet child (and so politically correct). I can't believe he's been in our life for 3 years-- what did we EVER do with our time without him?? I honestly can't remember (vaguely remembering 1AM trips to Walmart in Salem, but other than that.... drawing a blank).

I know I speak for both Ted and myself when I say that we truly feel blessed with the best little boy. He is so special in so many ways. Our lives our better with him in it and we are better people because of Eliot.


Oh, and I just wanted to make a cute little note that Eliot had requested that everyone say "surprise" upon his entrance. Ted made sure to get him to the party a tad late so everyone could "surprise" him.