A sick day in Radiator Springs

I cannot remember a day lately that we haven't had somewhere to go.  Between Cade and Kai going to school on different schedules and therapies it is rare to have a day at home.  Today, though, Cade is home with a nasty ear infection and an even nastier cough, and since Kai is still recovering from an upper respiratory infection from last week...well, I would say THAT constitutes as a sick day.  Which means pajamas and staying home!!!

Cade got the cars from the CARS 2 movie for Christmas...he has developed quite a fascination for wheels and cars and trucks of any kind (which can be very difficult sometimes!), but he especially loves these little cars.  They have now been transported to North Carolina and back, to numerous therapies, and a few have even had the luxury of traveling to PreK in his backpack now and then.  These little cars seem to get around, so we might see them anywhere...it is a bit daunting to look up from the toilet and see a little pair of car eyes staring back at you...

Cade is also pretty possessive of these cars.  It is a rarity that Kai is even allowed to touch them, must less play with them.  Kai is pretty good about this...he is used to dealing with Cade's quirks.  But being at the end of his two-year-old year has proven to be a challenge...I swear he is going through his second round of "Terrible Two's" and his ability to push Cade's buttons has increased ten-fold.  So I have been the referee of more than one boxing match (ok, so not really...but I have threatened to put them in a ring and let them go at it...) over these cars.

Today, though, Radiator Springs found it's way to our living room.  For those of you who don't know, Radiator Springs is the setting of the CARS movie.  It is a little town off of Route 66...one that has long been forgotten but is brought back to life after Lightening McQueen, the famous race car, finds his way accidentally into town.  He meets forever friends there, including Tow Mater, the hilarious country-bumpkin tow truck who becomes his best friend.

Ok, I'll take off my movie reviewer hat (I LOVE the movie almost as much as Cade!) and get back to my story.  As I was doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen...or doing one of the never-ending chores that seem to arise around here...I notice that it has been pretty quiet for a little while in the living room.  That typically spells disaster...so of course I peek around the corner to find out what is going on.  There I see the boys playing on the couch, and they have set up there own little Radiator Springs.  Cade as one car and Kai has another, and the two of them are acting out some play activity that they have come up with.  Then Cade spontaneously erupts into his quite funny rendition of "Life is a Highway" (the theme song from the movie), and the two of them race around the couch with their cars.

Never mind the fact that they really aren't supposed to be playing with the cushions off of the couch (is there a boy ANYWHERE who can actually not take the cushions off??), I am so excited to see them playing together with such imagination.  Cade was so often in his own world for so long that I always catch my breath a little when I see him now interacting so normally with Kai.  It makes me so excited for him, for both of them, and for the future relationship that I hope will continue to strengthen between them as Cade is healed.

So here's to a sick day and to little metal cars with eyes!  And here's to imagination -- we welcome you any time to our house...just pull up a chair and stay a while!