Iain has been building his own simple stilts for several years now. He makes the kind with long pieces that you hold on to and little triangular blocks for your feet. Elijah and him get on quite well with them and build new sets and adjust the height of the old ones whenever it pleases them (one of the joys of growing up with scrap wood everywhere).

When an opportunity came up for Iain to take a stilt walking and dancing class with an entirely different form of stilts, we knew it would be right up his alley.

Unfortunately, it was for ages 9 and up, so Elijah had to play spectator on this one. But I’ve now got some “Circus Stilt” plans and when things settle down a bit we’ll be able to make him an appropriately sized pair. I suspect Iain will make a great teacher and the two of them will be strutting around town in no time.

Iain caught on quickly, which is not at all surprising because this is just the sort of thing that he so easily excels at. We are talking about the child who taught himself to ride a 2 wheel bike in less then an afternoon and by the end of the day was trying to fashion ramps and things to make it a bit more challenging. Yeah. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, sometimes I think it takes a really strong heart to raise boys. And I’m sure that it varies from boy to boy (and girl to girl for that matter), but as a women with a house full of self proclaimed dare-devils, I do a lot of breath holding and eye averting. Even Steve, who’s youth was full of antics that I couldn’t even have imagined, has been known to walk on by with a head shake and proclamation of, “It’s a good thing they’re made of rubber!” And it’s true, for all of their stunts, not a one of them has sustained a serious injury yet (I’m starting to get the alarming feeling of running on borrowed time).

The grand finale for class was marching in our annual town parade, followed by dancing on the common.

Iain designed his own costume (because he’s awesome like that). The parade had an outer-space theme this year. Iain and Elijah made all of the planet appliqués themselves.

As we all walked in the parade, I didn’t really get any pictures of the actual event, but some from getting ready before and waiting for the parade to start.

And some from after on the common.

Looking up to talk to him, I laughed and told him that this is how it’s going to be 10 years from now, I’m always going to have to look up to look into his beautiful blue eyes.

And yes, as the day progressed, my hat rather wilted in the heat.

I have to say, this boy of mine is a pretty neat guy…