Little baker

On Thursday night, you wanted to make banana muffins. I did too much of the work and you were quite upset with me. You wanted a do over so you could do most of it yourself. Tonight, you are making chocolate chip cookies. I scraped a bowl. I must confess I'm not quite ready for you to be grown up. You were my "baby" for many years and I have a hard time remembering that you are not a baby anymore. Nine year olds can definitely bake by themselves. Your sister certainly did, and here you are doing it yourself. Hopefully you'll let me eat one. 

Ringing in the new year

I hope 2016 is a year to reconnect with my son. Your 10th year. Unbelievable. This is how we looked at midnight. You were really excited to take our first kiss selfie. 

I wasn't sure I would stay up, but had told you that if you wanted to, I would figure out how to stay up with you. As I was getting ready to go upstairs to bed, you came down to tell me that you accepted my offer to stay up. We made it! Well, you did. I dozed off and you wanted to know why my legs were shaking as you tried to watch TV using them as a pillow. Oops!

Relaxation

Tonight you told me that one of the things you imagine at night to relax is that daddy has only been kidding about loving us and decides to get a gun and kill us all... 

I don't even know how to respond to that. 

Grateful

Nevin looked at Corin this morning. 

"Happy birthday! Can I give Corin his imaginary present, yet?"

Corin opens it. Says he loves it. 

Nevin proclaims, "It's an imaginary plunger!"

Corin is very excited and laughing hysterically. 

Say what? Birthday wishes

"Corin, what do you want for your birthday?"

"I think I have too many toys so until I get those cleaned up, I just want those things that hold up books."

"You want bookends. For your birthday."

"Yes! Those!"

Expander

Braces phase one has begun. We are expanding his top palate to allow a bit more room for his adult teeth. It's removable so he doesn't have restrictions on eating which is nice. Plus, it's nice practice for having his expander. 

Own the bad ideas

We got over 13" of snow on Monday. On Tuesday, you got home from school and came inside covered to the knees in snow. Your hands were red, wet and ice cold. You had snow on your front. It was ridiculous. 

Me:"What happened?"

C:"I tried to get the mail the stupid way."

Me:"Which was?"

C:"I went from the back instead of from the street. Ryanne had to dig me out."

Normally, we would have a talk about how it wasn't necessarily stupid especially if you learned something, but I could only laugh and nod my head at that point. Thankfully, you were laughing, too. 

Colors

You love color. The brighter the better, in your book. Rainbows are awesome. Orange. 

I got you a shirt that said colors are for everyone when you were talking boy colors and girl colors (and acting a little sad that pink wasn't a boy color). You believe that colors are gender neutral to your core at this point. 

Nevertheless, we shuddered when you said you wanted to paint your pinewood derby car pink and purple. Given that you still won't wear a My Little Pony shirt (even if it's not a glittery Rainbow Dash shirt), we didn't want to risk you hating the pinewood derby because some kid teased you about your car. 

I decided to talk. You moved to pink, purple and red. Draw me a picture of what that looks like, I asked. You drew a microscopic car and got frustrated that you couldn't get the colors right. 

What are you trying to make it look like, I prodded. "The lapis lazuli block in Minecraft!"

Understanding. We googled the block. Pictures were found. You were surprised that it didn't have pink like you remembered. 

Now, you want to swirl three colors of paint together to make this amazing looking thing. http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Lapis_Lazuli_Block I don't think Chrys knows how to do this. Maybe we should have stuck with pink and purple. ;)

Summer's lament

Tonight was the meltdown. I've seen it coming, I've wondered when it would hit. Tonight, with just us home, daddy out, you cried. The tears of the end of a summer. You'll miss the fun things we do. You'll miss the cuddles. The lament of 200 days of school without me.

It breaks my heart and warms my heart all at the same time. I love spending these days with you. I love the unpredictability, I love the adventures. At the same time, I think that part of the fun is that they are unique. 

You love school. You love your friends. We have breaks and weekends and new adventures within school to look forward to.

I love you so very, very much. I cannot wait for next summer. I also cannot wait for the routine of the school year and seeing what you learn and grow to experience next.

Passion

Man, you are becoming quite the bird lover. You seem most interested in Orioles. You love watching all of them in our yard.

Tonight, we were discussing evolution. That led to a discussion on why we might need to evolve. Which led to a discussion on global warming. Eventually we ended up with you being VERY angy that people were hurting the environment, and in turn, harming the birds you love so much.

Not entirely sure of what will come from this. You want to singlehandedly change the world tomorrow. It will be hard to temper that with reality and not squelch your drive.

Hopefully we can at least build some bird houses for the yard, and you can figure out how to move forward from there.

I love your passion. I hope it carries you far.

Sometimes technology isn't your friend

C: "Set a timer for 50 minutes."

Siri: "Ok. 15 minutes and counting."

C: No, 50. Not 15. 50. Five- zero. 

S: The answer is (some number I don't remember)

C: No! That is wrong. 

S: If you say so.

C: Stop the timer. 

S: The timer is paused

C: Set a timer for five zero minutes. 

S: 50 minutes and counting

C: (relieved) Thank you 

You're 7!

And you're such an awesome kid. You open doors for me (cars and buildings). You give the best hugs and kisses. You cuddle. You are funny!

We went to the doctor today. You're 49" tall and 58.6lbs. 68th and 79th percentile a respectively. They declared you perfect. We asked about your nose bleeds. She said to use saline, but you hate that so we will stick with staying hydrated. She didn't see anything in your nose that was troubling. 

One of the best things about our doctor is her garden. In the summer she grows things to encourage kids to pick and try them. You chose eggplant today. One for each kid at home. I can't wait to cook them. 

On babies

As I was doing laundry today...

C: Mom! Nevin keeps pooping and making the hole house stink. Make him stop.

M: Make him stop...pooping? Seriously?

C: Uh. Well, could you at least change his diaper?

Simple pleasures

Ryanne got a clock radio when she started school. Well, she got Chrys' old clock radio from college. When Corin started school, he got a Ninjago mini figure alarm clock. Turns out, it wasn't the same. He has been really irritating his sister by running into her room to have a "dance party" with her radio and Nevin. I casually mentioned to Chrys that it would go a long way toward family peace if we just got him a cheap clock radio. Chrys carted one on Amazon and waited because I was going to let Corin pick one at Target. I forgot; Chrys checked out. 

His clock radio arrived today. After commenting on how far clock radio technology had come, we gave it to Corin. He was so excited. Ninjago was displaced and the clock was installed. He's channel surfing to keep the music continuous while he "dances" around his room. 

He was so happy. He said he felt like he was almost going to cry because people do that sometimes when they are really happy. His voice wavered. I almost feel bad that we put it off this long. I'm almost more sad that we didn't save it until his birthday. I suddenly think it would have been way better than any Skylanders or RC helicopters that might come his way. It has made his day. 

It's the little things. I am so glad we were able to give him this relatively small thing. I ams even more thrilled that just being able to have music and dance whenever he wants it brings him such joy. May the simple things carry him far in life...

Neil Gaiman

Tonight I waited 2 hours in a line to spend 15-20 seconds with Neil Gaiman. Supposedly it was to sign a book. However, as he said on his talk, most people wait in line to say thank you. He was right. 

I told him about taking "Instructions" to Corin's class. I told him that I loved that book because it was vague enough that I was allowed to read them the words, but they could tell me the story. He looked up and said, "That's how it should be." I agreed and said that was why I needed to thank him. 

I hope that you, Corin, will always tell me the story as you see it. I value your insights and love hearing what you think. Thank you for sharing your stories with me. 

Tooth #2

Has finally been lost. I had taken to calling him shark boy because the new one had come in so far behind it. He didn't really like that, but it did make him wiggle the baby one a bit more.

Gangnam style

I don't know where Corin has heard Gangnam Style. He has taken to walking around singing "Heyyyyy, sexy lay-beh".  Yeah, with b.

I asked him what laby meant. He doesn't know, but it's what the guy sings. There is NO convincing him otherwise...

I'm the daddy

Chrys got a new tie from his sister for Christmas. Corin found it and (loosely) wrapped it around his neck. Then he starts walking around the living room with his chest puffed up and his arms out to the side. I grinned. Then he starts chanting, "I'm the daddy" in his best gruff daddy voice. I lost it. He smiled ear to ear.

I wish I had gotten a picture. The boy knows how to work an audience.

Well, that makes sense

M: Dude, why are your cars up in the sky?
C: Because they went up the ramp and flew like woooo up in the sky to the next ramp.
M: ...




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On being a daddy

Tonight at dinner, we were discussing how long Chrys would be a daddy.

He was trying to argue that it would be about 17 more years (until N was 18). I pointed out that he would always be a daddy. He tried to emphasize this with Corin.

Daddy: "When you're a granddaddy, what will I be?"
Corin: "Dead?"

Yeah...not quite what we were looking for. I bust out laughing and then had to make sure that he knew it was because he played a good joke on daddy and not because I was laughing at him. Oy.


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