Remote. Controlled. Helicopter.

It's pretty safe to say that the best gift I got for my fourth birthday was from Uncle Dave II. Yeah, he sent a Bears t-shirt and a fake, fake ID, but that all accompanied a little blue remote controlled helicopter. On Memorial Day, Dad made sure we headed to the Christopher Columbus School playground for the chopper's inaugural flight. After some skimming of the instructions and two trips back home- once for batteries and once for a screwdriver to put those batteries in- Dad got the thing airborne. Soon I was giving it a shot and did pretty well. The school's astroturf circle makes for the perfect flight area, as crash landings become more like crash bouncings. By our next visit- while Dad was sending the thing into trees- I was flying across the circle, at least till the batteries ran out.