The Boy Felt a Need to Destroy

After finding a cardboard box and asking if they could have it, the boys grabbed their plastic tools. As they sawed off a flap and hammered golf tees into a side, it appeared they wanted to simply play with toys and practice being men. It was pretty cute.

But soon they were ripping the box with their hands and hammering seemingly indiscriminately with all their might. I asked what they were doing and Tertius responded matter of factly, "Just destroying this part and this part." "Why?" "None of your business." I don't think he was trying to be rude; he just simply did not have an actual goal that he could put into words for me.

They finally got the box all the way open and pounded it some more with their hammers until it lay flat. Quartus declared that it was a mattress but Tertius tried to vaguely explain that now they could add more pieces of cardboard to it and then make things with it. (Then he taped the flaps back on and patched the holes with tape.) 

These boys crack me up. It's so fun to watch them and try to figure out how their minds work. I guess I'm pretty lucky that Tertius channels his need to destroy things into a cardboard box instead of dumping flour, drawing on walls, or breaking things that matter!