Gonna tell me no?!

This morning my sister brought my daughter home after church, and Isaac (my nephew) wanted to stay for a visit.  Not one to ever turn down a day with "my boy" I offered to keep him while his mom and his brother went to the grocery store.

I was making lunch when I saw him walk up to an antique croquette set in the living room.  He surfed out a mallet and was swinging it around, using it as a little boy would.  It was a gun, a sword, and then a baseball bat.  Finally, his eyes hit the ultimate solution.  A ball, nestled in the bottom of the croquette set.

He looked at me, and then back at the ball in his hand, and said:  "I betcha you're gonna tell me no, huh?"  It instantly took me back to a time when my own daughter was his age.  I time when I wish I would have been a parent who said "yes" more often.   I turned around, smiled, looked him in the eyes and answered back: "Have fun!"  He looked at me confused and quickly reassured me, "I will be very careful!"

And with only two simple rules:
1) You may not hit any humans or animals with the mallet.
2) You must swing the mallet only to waist level.

He had a blast putting that croquette ball around our house, and we all survived!  Pets, people, the house, and I was reminded that sometimes in life it's important to say "yes".  A reminder I needed 10 years ago, and again today.