Birthday: accomplished

Our spider-and-fence-loving two-year-old is now three.

We spent the day running to Harmon's grocery store, looking at fences (he has a thing for fences), playing Mario Kart (it has fences), playing Donkey Kong (there are spiders), running back to Harmon's, opening presents, and eating a chocolate spider-and-fence cake with rocky road ice cream.

Whew.

I remember a class I taught at the U about five years ago. It was one of my favorite classes ever: I was an exhausted and shell-shocked new mom, but my class was awesome. They tolerated my tongue-tied-ness, made jokes about Aesop's fables, even wrote a perfectly-structured argument outline on the board entitled "Why We Should Be Allowed to Leave Class Early" (it worked). And one time, in this class, I told them something glib and completely untrue. I told them "Having a baby is much easier than getting a graduate degree!"

This is a lie.

Having a baby hurts. And then they grow. They get scraped knees and weird obsessions with fences. They cry when it's time to blow out the candles on their birthday cake because "the fence is burning!" They wake you up in the middle of the night, running-hug you in the middle of a book, and take over most of your life. It's worth it (which is sometimes not true of grad school), and (unlike grad school, books, skydiving, or anything else) parenthood never ends.

So happy birthday, my newly-turned three-year-old. May you love spiders and fences forever, and know that I will always work harder than anything to be your mom.

The picture is from here, and for some reason my computer isn't letting me edit any text in this post, so you are stuck with my very first draft mwa ha ha. Oh, and you are also stuck with the fact that I am too lazy to upload all the pictures from today, so you do not get to see my son crying as the candles behind the toy fence on his cake make it appear that the fence is on fire. Poor three-year-old...

Graduation!

My students graduated on Thursday. The boys wore black. The girls wore red. Jonathan Swift got a mention in a speech (he was compared to the irritating banjo music that marks the two-minute mark before the bell, but still!). Lots of students wore cool necklaces made of money or chocolate or hard candies, and I couldn't help but be proud of all of them. High school graduation is the first of many academic achievements for most of them, but it is an achievement. They survived thirteen years of school, and grew up in the meantime, and when they walked across that stage with the biggest smiles I couldn't help but think of my own sons. They'll leave high school and begin something even bigger, and I can't wait to see what all of them will do.

Congratulations, AMES students--especially all of you that had to read Jonathan Swift, and then dig deep into Thoreau's thoroughly terrible puns...you rock!

My birthday list...

New things I did on my 30^th birthday:

The boys gave me peppermint roses (they were stripey!)

I went into the Blast Zone and got shot by foamy balls

I went down the biggest indoor slide in Utah

I slid down two twisty black slides, too!

I razor scooted around with our two-year-old

I played multiplayer Pacman, Fast and Furious, and Guitar Hero (without sound!)

I ate beef and broccoli at the Asian Potato (no potatoes were on the menu)

I touched a five foot spoon at the Asian Potato

I touched a five foot fork at the Asian Potato

I tried Ginger Beer from Cy’s Market (ew)

I tried Rose Lemonade from Cy’s Market (meh)

I grossed my sister out with Egg Drop Soup (like “snot,” she says). Proceed to eat it in front of her.

I ate a carrot shaped like a flower (from the Asian  Potato)

I ate portabella chicken at Applebees

I wore hoop earrings

I went inside a gun store (where all the guns looked like plastic toys, but they really, really aren’t)*

I touched a barrel in Crate and Barrel (they have no crates)

This is where we went for the Blast Zone and razor scooter stuffs. 'Twas fun!

 * I was going to shoot a gun for the first time, just so I could maybe understand gun culture more (probably not, but maybe). Unfortunately, the first time we went both me and my husband forgot our wallets, and the second time we went they'd closed a half-hour early (who is going to argue with someone that heavily armed?). So we went to the nearby mall, because all the new activities my husband could think of were illegal, and hoop earrings seemed like a good alternative to arson.

 

What are some experiences everyone should have in their twenties?

I turn thirty this week. So, as the title asks, what are some experiences everyone should have in their twenties? I plan on shooting a gun, getting a pedicure, maybe paintball...stuff like that. But I need more ideas! If you give me some, I will send you virtual birthday cake! It will look like this:

This is from this awesome blog. It makes me happy!

Spider

Our two-year-old got a lot of two-year-old-boyish stuff for Christmas: trucks, cars, the occasional ball. We know he likes running. We know he likes drawing, especially on walls. We know he likes apple juice. But we weren't sure what he would want come gift time.

The spider puppet was sort of an afterthought, a thing we got from a friend for free. We wrapped it up for "The Family" and stuck it under the tree.

And now our two-year-old never lets it go.

It rides on his head. He tucks it under his arm for his daily run. He insists it says "Bzzz!" and he carries it around like Calvin carries around Hobbes. It is his best friend.

And it is awesome.

Bzzz-Spider may be less fluffy than this one, but it is significantly more loved...

Payment

The other night, as I put my five-year-old to bed, I told him: "If you go to sleep without waking up in the middle of the night and stay in your room past 7 a.m., I will totally pay you with cookies."

He thought for a moment, looked at me, and said, "I'd rather you paid me with real money."

Drat.

Creative careers

I like this:

That is all.