Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

If you don't already know it about me, I love LOVE LoVe the Dave Matthews Band. I was actually at the show at the Staples Center in LA last year that you see at :46 seconds on this video. It was the day that the bands incredibly talented saxophone player Leroi Moore passed out of our world and into a better place. It was the most heartbreaking show I've ever been to, filled with raw emotion. When Dave announced the news to the sold out crowd, you could actually feel the emotion overcome the crowd like a giant wave. The new album is out and better than ever. This quick video really gives a sense of where the brilliant music on this disc came from. It is, in my humble opinion, their best album in a long time.
I highly recommend it!

Clowns are Cool

Well we did it.
We survived birthday party number 7.
Peter Piper literally did all the work. Which was fantastically amazing unusual for me. Michael and his friends had a blast playing video games to their hearts content.
There was a face painter (oops... excuse me... artist) there that painted all the kids faces. Since it was Michael's birthday, he got to pick two.
As you can see from the photo, Michael chose to have the hulk "tattooed" on his arm and a pirate for his face. Let me just tell you this... it was a horrific experience trying to convince him that he could not keep the half smeared pirate on his face until school the next morning. He insisted it was too cool to remove. I insisted I would not have the "dirty kid". He insisted that smeared and streaked pirate paintings would be the "awesomest" (yes, that is the exact term he used) thing his first grade class had ever seen. I insisted that I would not have the "dirty kid".
In the end I won this small battle of "dirty" vs. "clean".
In addition to the face painter on premises, Michael's grandmother decided to hire a balloon animal making clown to attend the festivities. I'll be totally honest here... I thought this to be a terrible idea. I was absolutely certain that a group of 6 and 7 year olds would have little to no interest in a clown that makes balloon animals. I was actually a little concerned that this might be construed as the lamest thing ever uncool. The day of the party, I actually began to feel a bit anxious about whether this whole clown thing was a good idea. Okay... I'm possibly leaving out one small detail. I'm possibly leaving out the fact that, frankly, I'm not so fond of clowns myself. I'm not one with an actual fear of clowns... they just make me a little uncomfortable.
This was all a surprise to Michael. When the time came and the clown arrived, I felt my stomach drop a little. First, he entered Peter Piper in all his glory, honking away on his noise making honking thing. Oh no, I thought, this is not going to be Michael's thing. I really kept saying to myself over and over, "Please don't let Michael's friends make fun of him for this. Please don't let Michael's friends make fun of him for this." Well, with all of the honking and commotion, the kids come running over and surround the clown. First, he was not the most attractive clown I'd ever seen. He was real dry in his humor, which was entertaining since only the adults really understood his jokes. Here he his...But then he started making some of the 15,604 different balloon animals/objects in his repertoire.
Things like this. The pink panther playing a sax.



Or this. A rhino riding a motorcycle.

And this super sweet pirates hat on Michael's grandfathers head.

I learned two valuable lessons from the now infamous clown incident of 09.

1. Clowns are not that bad.

2. Clowns are definitely still really exciting to 1st graders. (yes... I admit it... Michael's grandmother was right about this one.)

What we wound up with was a pretty cool clown...
and a very happy birthday boy!

The ADHD Brain.

Michael's brain often mystifies me. I've read countless books and done a ridiculous amount of research to gain some understanding into what it is that he's feeling/going through on any given day. It's difficult for me to grasp because, well, I don't have ADHD. I can't fathom hyperfocusing. I can't fathom getting distracted by the tear in the knee of my jeans to the point that I nearly rip the bottom half of my pant leg off. I can't fathom the need to constantly fidget, move and sing. I couldn't really fathom what it is that goes on in his head until he came home from school with the above art project.
To me, it is the most beautiful expression and explanation of what he experiences day in and day out that I could have ever asked for. Clearly, I need to use art as an outlet for him more often.

Good Neighbors

We are really, unbelievably lucky to live on a street filled with kids. There are at least 10 kids on our street that go to the same elementary school that is 2 blocks away. It's really nice having a street like that and it's great for the kids because there is literally always someone to play outside with.
Directly next door lives Michael's best friend Sidney. Sidney befriended Michael from the minute we moved in and he and Michael have been inseparable since. They've been known to play together for 8 hours straight.
Lately though I've noticed that Sidney and Michael have been arguing. There have been several occasions in which one or both of the boys has stormed home, slamming the door behind them. The arguments typically stem from trivial details such as whether they should play wall ball or cops and robbers or who got to play Wii for longer.
This has been concerning me more and more. I admittedly over react all the time but with Michael's ADHD, he often reacts on impulse and will yell at his friends when he gets upset. Interpersonal relationships are difficult for him because he's not always able to think before he acts. I even caught him one evening attempting to push Sidney off his bike (because Sidney won the bike race I think.)

My husband (and he was a boy once) claims that this is totally normal and insists that all boys do this. He swears that he fought constantly as a kid with his friends in his neighborhood growing up. (I vaguely remember a story about two of them starting each other's newspaper route boxes on fire.) My difficulty here is that I grew up a girl. Girl's are different. We didn't argue and fight like that. I really don't think the bickering between friends began until high school for me.

Yesterday was Michael's 7th birthday. He had school (we're year round in Vegas) and brought cupcakes to school. After school, my husband picked him up and pretty much every elementary schooler in our neighborhood spent the afternoon in our front yard hanging out with Michael for his birthday. One of the gifts we got him was a sidewalk chalk set with 52 colors. When I arrived home from work, I happily found that they had decorated our driveway and the entire street in pictures and messages for Michael. When I got out of my car, Sidney ran up to me and I asked him "Sidney? Did you guys do all of this for Michael?" Sidney smiled and told me "Of course! Michael's my best friend forever!"
It doesn't happen often but I'm happy to report... my husband was right!

Here are a few of the birthday messages written just for Michael.

I believe this would be a very life like image of Michael.

Elementary school = not always completing the name.

They have a club on the street. Notice above, "if not a member do not enter!!"

I had to join in on the fun! Here's mine! Happy Birthday Michael!

The Years In Pictures

6 more years and he'll be a certified teenager. I'm so not ready for this!

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

7 Year Itch...

June 11th will be my son's 7th birthday.

I'm still trying desperately to figure out where 7 years have gone.

I remember as a child my parents telling me to appreciate my childhood because it would be gone before I knew it. I also remember being desperate to move forward and onward as soon as possible. 16 would never come. 19 (which was important on Grand Island because it was the legal drinking age in Canada) was ages away. 21 took forever to get to. And then I'm not really sure what or how it happened, but I turned 21 and time suddenly sped up.

I liken it to a really slow moving hurricane that you know is coming. You're watching it get closer and closer on the news. You can see the radar image as it moves toward land. You know it's inevitable that it's going to hit but it's moving so slowly that you start to believe that maybe, just maybe, it will putter out before it makes landfall. Then suddenly, almost unexpectedly, it hits. It picks you up with all its rain and wind and throws you around like a rag doll. You're suddenly engulfed in a whirlwind of hysteria and noise and you have no control. You know rationally that you could be making better decisions to get yourself out of this, but everything's moving so quickly that you have no choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride. You spin to the point that you are physically dizzy and emotionally exhausted. And then... as quickly as it picked you up, the hurricane passes. You're dropped down out of mid air, right on your ass, scratching your head. It is then that you realize that you have reached the unthinkable. Your thirties! It is at this point that we typically pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and vow to never wait out a storm like that again. We take all the lessons we learned in those tumultuous times and are finally able to take a deep breath and move slowly, calmly forward. There's no hurry anymore. No rush. Just relief that we made it through the hurricane in one piece.

Obviously, children will not believe you when you tell them this. It is a lesson that we all must learn for ourselves. My son, oddly enough, seems more interested in going backward than in going forward. Michael's the type of kid who's always longing for "the old days". He's in no hurry to be a teenager. "Being a teenager means you have a lot more homework" he wisely tell me. I secretly hope that he'll keep this spirit alive for years and years to come. I'm in no rush for him to grow up. ;o)

Does a Peter Piper Birthday Party = Parenting Failure?

My handsome, smart, adorable son is turning 7 on Thursday. He is very excited about this event because he considers it (as he explained to me) a milestone. A milestone? Yes... apparently 7 years old is a pretty big deal in the eyes of a 6 year old.

Every year, I throw a big, creative, expensive party at home for him. The first few years were at his grandparent's, the last few years have been at our house.

Each year, a few weeks before the party, I begin my desperate attempt at making friends with the parents of Michael's friends. See, I work... I don't even get to drop Michael off at school most days so I'm just not "in" with the "super mom's" as I lovingly refer to them. I call them super mom's with the utmost respect. Honestly, most days, going to work is like a break for me. No one whining and demanding that I refill his apple juice for the 6th time in 20 minutes. No chasing after the toddler who has just covered the couch and himself in peanut butter. The super mom's never get a break from this. I truly believe that staying home and taking care of the house and family and cooking and cleaning and staying sane and not becoming an alcoholic from it all has to be the toughest job in the world. (None of this is stated to infer that I wouldn't like to give it a shot. I certainly would. But in order to run our household, we need two incomes. Also, I've worked my ass off to get where I am. No point in stopping now.) Anyways... I digress.

It has now become an annual tradition, that at the last minute, I realize that I have no way to get a hold of any of Michael's friends parents to invite them to his party. Every year has turned out all right in the end. Plenty of kids. Sometimes too many kids. I go overboard with my theme of the year. I spend way too much money on a party that Michael will probably have no recollection of in 10 years.

Let's see... last year was Indiana Jones.

I had treasure hunts set up for the kids and all kinds of games and prizes. In the end... what did the kids spend the majority of the party doing?

Playing Wii.

Great.

Michael's 5th birthday party? A pirate party. He was obsessed that year with Pirates of the Carribean.

What did the kids have the most fun doing at that well planned party?

You guessed it.

Playing Wii.

Great.

So here I am. After planning and paying for a wedding in March, we are really not up to an expensive, over the top party. There doesn't seem to be time to clean the house top to bottom. So I called up Peter Piper Pizza. They offer affordable birthday party packages. They set up. They clean up after. They have beer. The only thing I am responsible for is bringing a cake. And most importantly, the kids can do what they do every year at Michael's birthday parties. Play video games. Michael seems more than happy to have his party at this wonderland of video games and pizza.

But for some reason, I feel like I am failing him by taking the easy route. I had to put no thought into this. I don't even need to clean the house for this. Granted, the money not being spent on decorating the house will mean more presents for Michael. But I still feel like I'm somehow cheating him out of something. I actually feel guilty.

The joys of parenting I guess.

Here's to Peter Piper.