The kid dreams big

Christian, my oldest, has become obsessed with owning a mansion someday. A few months ago, he asked me what the biggest and most expensive homes in the Cd'A area were for sale. I showed him the Amway house on the Spokane River and Hagadone's Stanley Hill home. He's so assured in his future that he knew that he would buy one of those mansions someday.

His claim to future wealth is always coupled with the promise that he would let Bekah and I live there too.

But now he's put his plan to paper. Instead of a pre-existing mansion, he knows exactly what he wants in his future abode. He gave me this list today.

Two pages. Front and back. Mixed mediums: pencil, pen, and red marker. It looks like he has been working on this list for days. In case you're curious, his mansion will be as follows.

20 bedrooms
6 bathrooms
2 living rooms
1 BIG! family room
3 kitchens
3 dining rooms
1 bowling alley
1 movie room for family only
1 movie room for guests
1 game room
2 offices
1 conference room

Outside in the yard: a pool, fireplace, tennis court, rockwall, big yard with 15 trees (4 apple trees, 5 pear trees, 2 maple trees, 2 cherry trees, 2 pine trees), wild rose bush, a garden (tomato plants, carrots, corn, potatoes, and grapes).
There will be a stable with 2 cows, 2 horses, 2 mules, 2 donkeys, 2 sheep, and 2 pigs, and a chicken coop with 6 chickens.

He'll also have kayaks, bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller skates, a motorcycle, pool floaties, s'mores, food for the animals, and wallets with lots and lots and lots of money.

Inside the mansion, he will have: a flat screen TV, another fireplace, 2 MP3 players, a Wii, an XBox, a playstation, 2 Nintendo DS's, clothes, cleaning stuff, food boxes, food cans, food, boxes, air conditioning, toothbrushes, toothpaste,
floss, mouthwash, phone, car, couches, beds, pillows, blankets, dressers, laptop, Bible, toys, books, medicine, toilet paper, pets (especially a parrot), dishes, silverware, a freshwater aquarium, a beta fish tank, fans, lamps, art stuff, a ring with a real gem, and contact lenses (because he doesn't want to wear glasses for the rest of his life).

Somewhere in explaining this all to me, he also said he wanted his own zoo. And a restaurant in the house because he won't ever want to leave.

He also said that he will live there with his wife and kids. Zu and her husband would also live there. JJ couldn't live there unless he was willing to help pay for it. Lucky me, he'll let me be the first guest.


Dang. I hope this kid never stops dreaming big.