Johnny's Golden Birthday

What's with golden birthday's anyway? Apparently, it's a Midwest thing, but I've never understood what the big deal is. If you're a kid, every year is a golden birthday since anytime you get presents is damn cool. When you've achieved college age, it's just your birthday - do you really need more of a reason to party hard? After that, you're either still acting like you were in college and just don't need that extra reason, or, you're too tired from work/parenting/living a grown-up life and could care less. For me, it was my 30th birthday. I do remember getting tanked that night (I danced around getting people to do Jag shots with me), but it was really all about the fact that I was 30, not that it was my golden birthday.

Johnny really gets screwed. His will be birthday numero uno - the one that is really more for the parents (yay - we managed to keep the little creature alive for a whole year - this is way easier than having a plant!).

Since he will be celebrating next weekend with a cake, he enjoyed a slice of homemade pumpkin pie with some whipped cream today. Granted, he really, really enjoyed it but the poor guy won't remember how much fun we had.

Or how delicious the pie was.

I'm old.

I just changed my profile to say I'm in my "late-30's". Used to say "mid-30's". Who am I trying to kid?

There are Christmas decorations up and carols playing downtown.

Yesterday morning, Dave and I welcomed the season in very different ways. Both of us were up before dawn, making preparations for the morning's events. While he was donning bright orange clothes, I was trying to get a pair of breezers on a mite already wearing knee pads. As he climbed up a tree, I poured a bowl of Rice Krispies, opened some yogurt and prepped a bowl of baby cereal and fruit. As he silently watched and listened to the woods wake up around him, I woke a sleeping baby who still managed to be Happy Morning Guy while gobbling down his breakfast much earlier than usual. As he sat patiently waiting for the sun to announce the dawn, I was trying to get an impatient baby into the mei tai in a parking lot. As Dave was realizing that the buck in the distance wasn't going to get close enough, I watched The Boy skate out onto the ice for the first team practice of the hockey season.

Welcome to winter in Minnesota.

Cash Money

I've recently discovered the neatness of Craigslist. Am I behind the times? John has grown out of a few things, and I got sick of them taking up space in my little house so I listed them a couple weeks ago. Two of the biggest items, a co-sleeper and his jumperoo, were out of my house by last Friday. Cash in my pocket...just like that! The co-sleeper went to a really cute, VW driving couple expecting a little girl soon. Being the stalker I am, I looked her up on FaceBook and discovered they were bible-bangers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just glad I didn't say something like, "Fuck - It's hard to get this god damn thing all folded up!" or "God dammit! I just pinched my finger!". I actually didn't even utter a censored version of the above since I was trying to make a sale and, well, you know. I'm sure my struggling with it was evidence enough that the damn thing is hard to get all folded up and put back in the bag. I have not FB stalked the woman who bought the jumperoo. I just don't want to know and now I'm uncomfortable for doing it in the first place. FaceBook has made life sort of weird. I wonder if they stalked me...

There's something about the Bumbo seat, though. I've had three different inquiries and they all flake out. The first hit was a woman who wanted to come pick it up that day. She left me her phone number and I both called her and responded to her email. Never heard from her again. Same thing with the second woman. Said she really wanted it and was wondering when she could come pick it up. Left her a message and never heard back. The last woman asked if it was still available and I promptly responded. She then came back and said she was in contact with another woman who was selling it for the same price as me ($25 - half the retail price) and asked if I'd take $20. I replied no because it was hardly used and like new (John only used it for a few weeks before he figured out how to wiggle out of it). Now, I don't blame her for haggling - in fact, the jumperoo woman knocked me down $10. But when she replied, "Your loss.", I was like, really? Do you have to be a snot about it?

Henry and I promptly blew the jumperoo profits at the movie theater.

Cloth Diaper Give-Away - Wicked Cuteness!

Oh my gosh - if you cloth diaper, you have to check out Fluffy Mail! One thing I've found in trying to cloth diaper a boy (well, to dress a boy in general) is that there is waaaay more cuteness out there for girls. I don't like race cars. I don't like football on any day except for Sunday (and an occasional Monday night). It's not fair. The women at Fluffy Mail solve that problem by offering TONS of embroidery options so you can design your own. Very cool and much appreciated!

Check out Oh Baby O for the chance to win one of these super sweet dipes. Please note that I'm totally going to win, though. I have my eye on this one and WANT IT DESPERATELY!!!

Conferences

Wow - I have a lot of catching up to do. Guess I should make more of a concerted effort to blog more often...

Dave and I had been looking forward to conferences since day 1 of first grade. Partially because of all the stuff that went on last year and our instructions to wait and see what this year would bring and partially because of things that grow on volcanoes. We know he's a good reader, but were really prepared to hear about how he's wiggly.

The sheet Henry brought home specifically said that we should make an effort not to bring our student so we arranged for an auntie to hang with the boys, much to his disappointment. He found out that there was a book fair going on and really wanted to go. We assured him that we were definitely planning on hitting the books after the conference and thought that he was cool with that. Especially considering he put in his order of "Goosebumps" that morning and seemed satisfied. But, the wheels must have been turning like crazy in class that day. He had his teacher write him a note that said it was ok if he came along. How's that for problem solving?!

We left the house early so we could go to the book fair first and then meet up with The Boys and my sister-in-law for dinner afterwards. We ended up outside the classroom about 10 minutes early (Goosebumps in hand) and Mr. B had us come in right away (I wonder if the family before us even showed up). For the next 30 minutes, we sat in awe of our little boy.

Ok, so we know he's a good reader. We didn't know that he flies through his math and then walks around and helps other kids figure out the answers. He doesn't tell us these sorts of things. When they were testing for reading levels, Mr. B stopped him at the second grade level. He said he definitely is beyond that (suggested he could probably read Harry Potter), but he wants Henry to focus more on comprehension and discussion rather than on the more technical third grade readings for now. Mr. B said over and over again that he sees great things and went on and on about Henry's potential. He gave us some ideas to get his writing up to his reading level - the only thing he feels The Boy needs to work on in order to get into the Gifted and Talented program. ::big grin from mom::

On hindsight, I wish we would have brought him. It was a Henry lovefest. Sometimes, he seems to have a really low self-esteem, which makes me sad. Sitting in a room while his teacher raved about how smart he is may have done wonders for him. Damn. I hate hindsight.

So, for now, we're finding fun ways to make him write without raising any suspicions or putting any pressure on the kid. He "fixed" a bunch of stuff in the basement yesterday and I had him write up what was wrong and how he fixed it before I was going to accept his $166 worth of "charges". LOL! I had no idea that there was a giant hairball causing our TV stand to wobble. Can you believe it cost us $70 to have that removed?! At least he's fairly realistic...

Where the Wild Things Are

Henry and I went to Where the Wild Things Are last night. Wow. It was so good, yet so sad! I did some reading before we went since there are some out there who think that it is too scary for little kids. Whatever. Granted, Henry really doesn't get scared at movies unless something jumps out from somewhere and then he laughs, which is good. I really didn't see anything frightening other than some big creatures who are a little rough (ok, maybe a lot rough).

The scenery was gorgeous and the creatures were incredible! They looked just like the book and I was amazed at how they were able to show so much emotion. The main difference between the full length film and a 9 page book was how Jonez developed the characters and expanded the story/plot. It's a very sad story about family and the fear of losing that closeness and it wasn't lost on Henry. At one point, as I was wiping tears from my eyes with my napkin I glanced down at Henry. There were tears streaming down his face. I laughed, at both of us, and handed him a fresh napkin. He looked up at me and whispered, "I can't stop crying." Ohhh, my little sweet guy with the heart on his sleeve. He's so my boy. We talked about the movie and the plot on the way home and I think he picked up on much more of the story than I thought he had.

One of the things that bugged me was how they had Max run off to the land in his imagination and how he returns. He gets in trouble and runs out of the house and down the street, his mother chasing after him. He comes back the same way and through the front door. The problem I had was that the land of the Wild Things was so obviously his room, like it is in the book, with the mountains made out of paper towel and toilet paper rolls, the fort he loves so much and the stuffed animals which became the Wild Things. Not that big of a deal, but why couldn't he just have been sent to his room without dinner?

If you have school-aged kids - GO TO THIS MOVIE! If anything, it makes for a great conversation about the unconditional love we should all be experiencing in the confines of our homes.