He’s a Tramp August 14, 2009

(originally posted on LiveJournal)

Jack has recently (as in, since Sunday) become obsessed with The Lady and the Tramp. He likes the white dog – Peg. Peg sings “He’s a Tramp”. Jack asked me to sing it for him at bed time. So I sang…

“He’s a tramp, but they love him.
Breaks a new heart, everyday.
He’s a tramp, they adore  him,
And I wish that he could travel my way.”

Jack said, “No. He doesn’t travel her way, she travels his way.”

I said, “Oooo kkkkk” not really getting the difference.

Then I had the song stuck in my head, and I realized that the lyric is:
“I wish that I could travel his way.”

So, Jack was right. My kid is a genius.

Focusing on the Positive July 2, 2008

This has been a very bad week. I’m sure I’ll write about that soon. But I wanted to focus on the positive, in the form of an email message I just received from Max. Max took Jack to see Wall-E, Jack’s second movie theater movie, while I’m at work.

Subject: To say that Jack liked Wall-E…

would be an understatement.

The movie didn’t really hold his interest after the plot kicked in, and he spent the last fifteen minutes or so trying his best to run around the aisle, but he really liked Wall-E. In the car on the way home, he cried because I wouldn’t turn around and take him to see it again. He insisted that he have a Wall-E once-upon-a-time while he lay in his crib, and he wanted to be Wall-E sleeping in the green green grass instead of a baby cow.

I think the three of us might have to go shopping for Wall-E toys sometime in the next couple of days. I haven’t found any Wall-E toys online that say they’re okay for two-year-olds, but they look okay to me.

Oh, and we went to rent videos. Jack latched onto the two-disc release of Cinderella and wouldn’t let go, so we got that, along with Enchanted, Monsters Inc, and Cars.

4th of July July 4, 2007

The 4th of July is my very favorite holiday (followed closely by Christmas – if only in my head). I love the celebration of summer. I am not patriotic, and usually do not stand for the national anthem when it is sung at baseball games and graduations. But everyone deserves a birthday, right? So Happy Birthday USA! And if there happen to be BBQ, summer snacks, and fireworks involved, so much the better.

Last year, Jack was too little, and in I’m-not-going-to-nap-ever mode, so, while we got to go to the local parade, there wasn’t much July 4th fun involved.
Today, we stepped up a bit. Jack and I went with our friend Jude and her son to see Charlotte’s Web for free. It was the new live-action. It’s theme really was appropriate for the 4th – how extraordinary things come in ordinary packages, and the combinations of two or more ordinary things may make for something truly extraordinary indeed. Jack was excellent in his first movie! He actually sat on my lap and watched, pointing to the animals and saying their names. He didn’t get bored until the families went to the fair, about 3/4 through the movie. We then went to the Burger King play place, where Jack got his first fast food French fry (and what could be more American than that?).
We got home and the Chittister family took naps.
Sadly, I had awful dreams that make me think I should just have stayed awake and gotten something done. I’ve been having really awful sleeps myself lately. I mean to post about that, for all you budding psychologists out there.
We went to a friend’s house for some BBQ and swimming. Jack loves swimming! Kick Kick! They have a water slide, and he wanted to go down. I admit that I pointed it out and was at least as excited as he was about it. I took him down with me. I didn’t realize how deep the pool was. I thought I’d go under, touch bottom, then push myself back up. But I didn’t touch bottom. So I had to lift Jack above my head to make sure that he didn’t suck up water. Apparently, me not coming up scared him more than the slide did. Poor guy! Later, he fell down the two stairs from the deck (wood) to the pool (cement). Max caught Jack’s head with one hand. Good catch Daddy! As one of the other fathers in attendance said, “He deserves some payment from that, is all I’m saying.”
We hung out for awhile. Jack was saying “nye nye” so we came home. No fireworks again (disappointing for Mommy). Jack was actually kind of bouncy so I brought him downstairs after bottle (and singing the Johnny and the Sprites theme song for the 12th time), to see if the fireworks were on TV. Nope. There was some country band on the Capitol Fourth, and Jack went “clap clap” and clapped his hands, then clapped my hands, pretty much in time to the music. Song over, he said, “Sprites!” (More like “sites”.) So we watched some of them and Daddy took him up and put him to bed.
Max and I watched fireworks from San Jose on TV.

All of this has made me realize that I want to have a BIG 4th of July again. Whether it’s here, or in Silicon Valley, Albuquerque, NYC, Disney World, or somewhere in between. We should be able to swing one big 4th of July every 5 years or so, right? I know traveling with children is expensive (trust me, we’ve done it 10 times, so I know). I also know that I want to meet these kids that are popping out, and to see the people without kids who never email because we bore them with talk of our kids. One big bash to reclaim the summer. To eat like a kid, and introduce our kids to the wonderment of cotton candy, fireworks, and summer magic.