king of the hill
last night we went to our usual spot to watch some “pre-4th of july” fireworks. andy’s parents came along and we ended up seeing some good friends there too. after it stopped raining on us, we let caleb loose to play with the other kids. mostly it was older boys, i would say 7-10 years of age and then there was 3 year old caleb with his 3 year old buddy stuart!
we noticed them off in the distance playing on what looked like a big pile of sand. caleb LOVES playing other with boys and i could tell he was having loads of fun. i wanted to capture what he was doing so i decided to walk over and take some pictures. as i got closer to the action i noticed that caleb in particular was hitting or karate chopping other kids as he was on top of the pile of dirt. my first reaction was to shout, “caleb, why are you hitting?” but then i took a better look at the scene to discover that all of the boys seemed to be doing this game of running to the top of the hill and pushing, karate chopping, smacking, and so forth, whoever was in the way.
i started shooting some action shots and then a BIG kid gave caleb a forceful push down the hill and he landed flat on his back. hearing myself starting to give a great big reaction of “aagghh, caleb, are you okay?” i decided to choke back my words and sounds of shock or perhaps even fear. instead i said, “caleb are you alright?” in a calm manner. he laid there on the ground staring at me and i wasn’t sure where he was going emotionally (i figured he would break out in tears at any moment.) i shot a quick picture and then he got up. 
my recommendation to him as i brushed off the dirt that covered him from head to toe was that maybe he shouldn’t play this game because the big boys were being awfully rough. my little man looked up at me and stated matter of factly, “mommy, i HAVE to do this.” and off he went for another go.
in beginning to retell this story to andy a few minutes later, i barely got the description of this game caleb was just involved in out of my mouth when andy said, “he was playing King of the Hill.” not knowing what the heck he was talking about i kept on explaining what i saw. andy repeated, “yeah, that’s King of the Hill.” we all got a good laugh out of the fact that caleb was trying hard to fight his way to the top. maybe it’s just me but i have to say that this must be a boy game because this is the first time i had come into contact with this game of dominance.
afterwards andy was giving caleb some blocking tips to better equip him with the next time he played this game. 
all in all it was awesome!