"The name is Seuss....Blackie B. Seuss" (HOL 96)

House of Laughter 96

Growing up, my sister had a large menagerie of stuffed animals. She named almost everyone of them. I still remember the names of her three main monkeys, Sam (of which my niece Lily received a clone for Christmas one year. A rubber faced monkey with a yellow shirt and rubber banana affixed in his left hand.), Precious White, and Fat Monk.

It is important that your main stuffed animals have good names. Out of nowhere this weekend, Isaac announced the last names of two of his regulars. From now on, Blackie Bear will be known as “Blackie Bear Seuss”. (I thought it was pretty cool that the Isaac gave a shout out to the good Dr.) Blackie Bear’s friend, a small white monkey with velcro on his paws that he received for Christmas, in now known as, “Monkey Rick Jones”. Since only the comic geeks reading this know who “Rick Jones” is, I will explain to those of you have kissed a girl. Incredible Hulk has two sidekicks, a wayward teen named Rick Jones (who later helps Captain America), and a lab monkey named, “Monkey”. Isaac came up with these names on his own out of nowhere.

Sunday, we took Isaac and Aiden to see Sesame Street Live. (Isaac had won tickets at an Easter egg hunt a while ago.) I will say this…it was not as bad as Nemo on Ice. It was loud, and the four ibuprofen I took as a precaution did nothing to prevent a crushing headache. The plot revolved around a new music teacher (The sensibly dressed Jenny) moving to Sesame Street and losing her instruments. The Sesame street gang team up to surprise her with new ones made from garbage. Bert, Ernie, Big Bird , Elmo ( who to my delight Oscar referred to as “The Red Menace”), and Cookie Monster all made appearances, although it was clear that there were more costumes than dancers as many of the characters made only brief appearances. It was the minor characters who were most unsettling though.

Nancy had the aisle seat and was treated to an up close visit with “Prairie Dawn”. Evidently they don’t Febreeze the costumes that often, because Nancy told me that she reeked of B.O. There was another character I was unfamiliar with. There was a girl grouch with a tattered pink dress and ribbons twisted up in wild dreadlocks. She reminded me a lot of Marla from Fight Club. I half expected her to ask the Count to check her for lumps.

As the lights from the first act went up, a person with about 60 enormous Elmo foil balloons walked into the middle of the theater. Nancy asked if we should get some for the boys. I suspected they would have been overpriced and told her that they were probably six or seven dollars each. I was wrong. 10 dollars. Every single one of those balloons was sold. That is over 500 dollars worth of helium and foil. At least thirty dollars worth was stuck on the ceiling by the end of the show. The punch line though is that right before the second act began, they announced that you needed to store these two foot long balloons under your seat for the remainder of the show.

Monday was terrific. I started the morning doing a radio show with some friends at WQFS, and then in the afternoon, Nancy suggested we go kayaking. It was a perfect day. Isaac and I rode in a tandem, and Nancy stretched out in her own kayak. We watched turtles sunning themselves, and huge birds swoop over the water. The sun was bright, but just when it was starting to burn, it would hide behind a cloud. Isaac dangled his hand in the water and splashed around once I assured him that there were no gators, and that the fish wouldn’t bite him. Near the end of our trip, we all just laid back and drifted around the lake watching the clouds. It was a perfect trip.

This morning on the way to daycare, Isaac stopped me to look at a snail on the sidewalk. I asked him if he wanted to pick it up. He was hesitant at first, but picked up and held him in his hand the whole trip to school. I was really surprised that he didn’t panic when he told me that the snail was giving him kisses. I was never that fond of slimy things when I was a kid. When we arrived at daycare, his teacher went up even further in my book when she not only welcomed Isaac’s snail into her class room, but wrote “Snail” on a plate, put a wet piece of paper towel on the plate and encouraged the children to come over and watch. Isaac was the coolest kid in the room this morning.

I never did write about our recent camping trip/ coaster road trip. We went to King’s Dominion with some friends and the brave ones among us spent the night in two cabins near the park. I spent most of the night accidentally swearing at Isaac’s friend Aiden (He who is known at all Greensboro emergency rooms), because he was determined to burn himself on either the grill or the fire pit. Isaac and Aiden slept hard after a night of Smores and lightsaber fights under the stars. The day at the park was pretty good considering we had two small children, two folks without children, three parents who loved riding coasters, and one parent who loved checking the hockey scores on his Iphone. Isaac rode three coasters including Avalanche, and the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster…his first woodie. (Oh grow up it’s coaster geekspeak.)

He bravely rode on each one, although the Scooby one was admittedly pretty rough. I want him to get used to them now, so I don’t have to suffer the same embarrassment my own parents did at the tremendous temper tantrums my sister Alison would throw because she was afraid of Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Strength and Honor.
Big Matt

P.S. And of course by “Alison” I mean me at age 12.

Color in the Lines, She is watching! (HOL 95)

House of Laughter 95

Every once in a while, I get caught off guard when Isaac does something so “gosh-darn-Lifetime-movie-of-the-week-cute”, I can’t’ help but get a lump in my throat.

Monday morning was rainy and cold. I was not in the mood to go to work and Isaac was not in the mood to go to school, so during the commute, we talked about what we would do that day if we didn’t have to go to school. We agreed that playing games, making strawberry milkshakes, playing with racecars, and watching movies would be a much better way to spend a cold wet Monday.

I told Isaac, “ I don’t want to go to work today either.”

He responded, “But Daddy, you have to take care of the sick people.”

Every time I got frustrated at work, I remembered Isaac telling me why I was here, and I became much less frustrated.

At night, after we read our books, we say a prayer. We thank God for foods we like, animals we saw that day, friends who are sick. Usually Nancy and or I prays out loud, while Isaac does his best to be still and quiet, but a couple of days ago he interrupted Nancy in mid –prayer and said “Thank you for my family.”

Monday afternoon I had a conference with Isaac’s teacher. It is strange to me to talk to someone who only a year ago was a stranger, but she has a more detailed analysis of how my child is developing than I ever would have come up with on my own. She showed me how the muscles in his hands are developing by comparing the difference in how dark his coloring was at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. She knew what letters he could identify. She reported on the progression of his athletic abilities, his communication skills, and social interactions.

It was odd to realize how many facets of his development were being not only tracked but documented with his school work even at three years old. (They did not offer a midicholorian count. I asked.) The meeting was a good mix of Isaac analysis and “we really do love your kid”. If the tone had swung to far one way or the other, it would have been uncomfortable, but I came out of the meeting feeling like he is at the right day care for our family.

Last weekend I asked Isaac if he had any dreams. He told me “The bears came and took my dreams. They took them back to the woods.” Creepy? Cute? You make the call.

Last night at a pizza restaurant, Isaac was coloring the placemat. It was a picture of a dog riding in a van. Isaac drew red lines coming out of the dogs eyes. I asked why the dogs eyes were red and he told me that the dog had “Cyclops Power”. We’ve been reading a lot of comic books lately and saw Wolverine in the theater a couple of weeks ago. Isaac’s favorite good guy right now is “Hulk”. When we get to the fighting parts of the comic, I point to the words on the page and Isaac growls , “HULK SMASH!”. Isaac decided that since Batman has a theme song (lyrics…Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh BATMAN!) and Spiderman has a theme song (lyrics…does whatever a Spider can), Hulk should have a theme song as well. The lyrics to Hulk’s theme song are, “Hulk or Banner, Hulk or Banner, Hulk or Banner” to the tune of Spiderman’s theme song. (Funny side story…I heard a kid at Isaac’s school singing “Spiderpig, Spiderpig, does whatever a spiderpig does.” The teacher told me that all of the kids at daycare sing it. You guessed it, Isaac taught them. I’m a little proud.)

Finally I leave you with some helpful advice for any trips you take this summer from the North Carolina Zoo quarterly magazine. This tip is for making the most of a day at the zoo, “The minute you arrive, collect everyone’s cell phones, drop them in a bag, and lock them in the trunk of your car. Spend the day talking to the ones you are with, not the ones on the line, and you will enjoy the zoo, it’s nature, and it’s animals all the more.”

Strength and Honor

Big Matt