Next Stop: My Childhood

There are many wonderful things about being a parent. Of course there's the obvious cliche answers like the love and the bond you share with your child, and knowing you made an impact on some one's life. Blah blah blah. Even though those things are wonderful, this particular blog is not a sappy one.

One of my favorite things about having kids is having random memories from my childhood, ones I had long since forgotten, come screaming back to life in an instant just because of something my kids did or a movie we watch. Within the past year, I've bought and watched All Dogs Go to Heaven, An American Tale, and The Lion King. I have distinct memories of these movies from my childhood, and it's amazing how quickly these memories come back to you.

Within the last half hour, while I've been sitting here at my laptop writing this, I have seen an episode of The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as well as a commercial for Dumbo, which will apparently be playing on the Disney Channel soon. Over the holidays, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas numerous times. I have DVDs of Animaniacs and Freakazoid and I love watching them with the kids.

As much as I love reliving my old memories, making new memories to share with my kids is what I love most about it. I now have two sets of memories surrounding these things, and I know that my kids will remember them for years to come. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a movie or a TV show that you watched as a kid, and take the time to watch it with your own children. Share a memory with them, and make a new one.

Pre-K: The New 8th Grade

So let me start off by saying, earlier this week I got a flyer in Caleb's school folder telling the parents that there is a "Sweetheart Dance" for Pre-K- 4th graders. They're supposed to bring a parent, but for Heaven's sake, it's a dance...for five year olds...I'm not going. Anyway...

Caleb normally comes home from school extremely happy. He's usually bouncing off the walls and telling me about his day. Yesterday, he wasn't doing any of that. He was sullen, not smiling, and didn't want to talk about school. Enter Mom-Mode. About 50 questions start rolling through my head, "Are you sick?" "Did something happen at school?" "Did someone at school hurt you?" I couldn't get him to talk. Most of his answers were "No." or "It's just nothing." I was worried, but if you've ever tried talking to Caleb when he doesn't want to talk, you know it's a losing battle. I thought I would give him some space and try again later.

Enter "Uncle" George, who has a special way with the kids. He gets Caleb answering questions. And we find out, through interrogation, that Caleb is sad because one of the girls in his class doesn't want to be his friend any more. She doesn't want to be his friend because he hasn't invited her over to play. So he tells me, he's upset because he isn't friends with everyone. Oh my goodness, I thought this was teenage girl drama.

Obviously we reassure him that sometimes not everyone will like you, and to keep being nice to her anyway. He was fairly happy with that. He told me after dinner that he is going to be friends with everyone even if they aren't friends with him. That's my Caleb.

But in all seriousness, what is happening with our children? I thought Pre-K was preparing for Kindergarten, not high school. I thought it was a time to make friends and learn through playing, not fighting over who likes who and whether or not you're my friend. Our children are growing up way too fast, and we only have ourselves to blame. We should allow our children to be children for awhile, not hurrying them to grow up. You have 18 years with your kids no matter how "mature" they are at five. Let's allow them to remain innocent awhile longer.

I'll step off my soap box now.

Hand Over The Coffee And No One Gets Hurt

If you have ever had the pleasure of experiencing a kidney stone, you know you will do pretty much anything to make that pain go away. I’ve heard of people mixing lemon juice with olive oil and drinking it in an attempt to expedite the passing of a stone. That, to me, is a level of desperation even I haven’t reached yet.

The problem is, I know my kidney stones are caused from all the coffee, tea, and soda I drink. So when I get a stone, like I did yesterday, I refrain from drinking my beloved coffee and opt for water. This is what happens when I don’t have coffee.

All day yesterday I had a headache. I was alternating Advil with Tylenol to try to ease the pain from my kidney stone, and even the combination of the medication couldn’t take away my headache. I became extremely irritable, which I suppose you could blame on the fact that I had an extremely sharp rock causing hundreds of tiny cuts and spasms as it moved from my kidney to my bladder, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I didn’t have coffee.I wasn’t just jumping down people’s throats, I was practically tearing their heads off. If there were a treatment center for people with coffee dependency, I could be their poster child. Hi, my name is Chrissy. I’ve been coffee-free for almost 24 hours. (Applause)

This morning, against my better judgment, I broke down and had my cup of sweet, delicious coffee. While I certainly don’t want to form another kidney stone, I know that I can’t make it another day without it, especially considering I have to go to the store today, and bake some cookies on top of my normal every day things like laundry, cooking, and so forth.

In conclusion, I came to the realization that I am an addict. If the threat of a kidney stone can’t make me give up coffee, then I’m not sure anything could. I wonder what the 12 steps for Coffee-holics Anonymous would be?

The Art of Losing

It was a tough weekend for the Harbaugh brothers, which means it was a tough weekend at our house. You see, I am a Ravens fan, and my sister is a 49ers fan. I had the kids watching the Ravens game with me yesterday, and this is pretty much how it went...

Every time the Ravens scored, forced a fumble, got an interception, I would jump up and down and yell and clap. The kids did the same.

Every time the Patriots made a good play, or when they got an interception, or scored, I yelled something similar to "Oh, come on. Are you serious?" The kids did the same.

I swore once, luckily they didn't repeat me.

Well after we ended up losing, all I could do was sit in complete shock and in silence. After processing the loss of my team, I started thinking about how my children were learning how to be a sports fan through what I was doing. And the question came to mind, how would I want them to act in this situation? When they start playing soccer or baseball or whatever sport they choose, how are they going to act when they lose? How are they going to act when they win? The answer is however I do.

I want my children to be gracious losers. I want them to give the other team credit for what they did well. I want them to understand that sometimes, you can give it your all and do your best, and the other team beats you fair and square. Yelling doesn't take away your loss, so at least accept your loss with dignity and grace.

I also want them to be gracious winners. No gloating on the sidelines, no rubbing it in. Still give the other team credit for what they did right. Don't act like you had it in the proverbial bag all along. It's one thing to be competitive, it's another thing to be a jerk.

I hope that with time, my children will learn to be like this, even if I can't always show them by example. Heaven knows there are times I'm not very sportsman-like while I'm watching my team on TV. However, I would be more proud of my son if he accepted his loss graciously, than if he won and acted like a jerk.

Great games Patriots and Giants, but I still hope that somehow you both lose the Superbowl.