See if you can tell the differences between my two sons based on their letters to Santa. Incidentally, both were typed as Word documents.
Clooney’s:
Dear Santa,
I will like
Hot Wheels mega garage. Hot Wheels super jump race way. Hot wheels shark bite bay. Toy Story pop up open play World. Hot Wheels twenty pack of Cars. Hot Wheels ten pack of cars.
And it has over 2,000 pieces!
Lego Grand Emporium Lego Green Grocer Lego Medieval Market Ville Lego white house red inflatable guitar Lego winter village bakery Lego fire brigade Lego public transport Lego city house Lego city airport Hot wheels crash course Hot wheels super service center Lego manta warrior Lego squidman Escape Nintendo blue dsi Lego winter toy shop Lego beach house Hot wheels custom motors auto shop Lego the bikini bottom express Lego rocket ride Lego Krusty Krab Aventures Lego good neighbors at bikini bottom Love , Clooney
I really wish that I could buy some LEGO stock. I think most of the LEGO things he wants are about $150 each.
And Edison’s:
Dear Santa Claus,
I know that you’re busy and all, but I haven’t got a chance to give you my Christmas list! I’m sorry, but fifth graders are busy with all of the projects that we do. And also, if you can’t read my brother’s list, it’s OK, I can’t really read it either. He needs some work on grammar.
OK, so now that that’s over, I want to tell you what I want. No problem, right? Good. Now, ever since I’ve seen Super Mario All-Stars, I’ve wanted it. It comes with a Mario CD, with soundtracks from the Super Mario games, a Super Mario history book, and four Super Mario Games: all in one pack! Amazing, right?
Um, well, my brother, my sister and I all want to play Wii Party at the same time, so I saw a Nintendo Week episode and saw the new Wii Remote Plus, which has the Wii Motion Plus function built right in! Now, if I get it, we can all play at the same time without loosing the Wii Motion Plus!
Now, this might be a big task but, could I PLEASE have the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts castle? It looks amazing, and when I read the book, I had no idea that it looks like it does! It has staircases, ten minifigures, knights, and it’s the best school of wizardry and witchcraft, thank you very much. The book’s the BEST!
The Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot is pretty cool, too. I have ALWAYS wanted to engineer, so I want to get that. I really like robotics, bridge making, and the way to use your brain. It will also help me wit my next science unit project.
The Lego Quidditch Harry Potter set is pretty cool, too. It contains minifigures, the Snitch, the Bludgers, and all of that other good stuff. I would LOVE to compete against my brother looking for the Snitch!
Sonic Colors for the Nintendo DS or for the Wii would be fun to play, too! It has amazing power-ups, and enemies that are fun to defeat with them. Sonic returns again! I played a demo of the DS version on mine, myself.
Harry Potter, years 1-4 for the DS and Wii is also fun. As I have mentioned, I read the book. I can probably be on the Quidditch team! The magic begins when you stay at the Dursleys’ home, going through the reptile house to Hogwarts school. It looks like I’ll become a wizard! Both my brother and I want games, Wii and DS.
Maybe Harry Potter, Year 4 would be a good book for the holidays, don’t you think? Books are VERY fun to read, and this one is so long, it might take me all winter! Harry Potter is very nice, exciting, and adventurous. I hope you’ll give it to me for Christmas!
Harry Potter on DVD would be fun to watch, even seventeen times if I want to. But, that would give me a headache. Still, it’s a good movie. I like the first two, but have only watched a little of the third. Could you get me the first three, please? I haven’t read the full third book yet, but I’ll watch it when I’m finished.
The Lego game Magma Monster would be fun, and so would Creationary. I could play them with my family on Christmas morning. Anyhow, I would really like them, so could you please get them please?
Love,
Edison
P.S. My friends say you’re not real. If you are real, send me a letter with my gifts to prove them wrong!
Over the weekend, I was feeling really good. So good, in fact, I almost felt guilty (stupid Catholic upbringing). Things are just going so great, you know, I have a husband I love, I’m a good wife and mother, living in the house of my dreams, etc. I’d just hosted a really nice holiday cookie exchange with my friends, where everyone left feeling relaxed and happy. What more could I want?
I told this to Manfrengensen, who was unimpressed (he knows me too well). He said (and we laughed), “If you were a stock, I’d be selling right now.”
By Tuesday, the stock had taken a dive. Mothering can be a thankless, thankless job, but some days, when you work hard at it, you don’t expect praise, but you know, you’d just like to be able to do the job with a little less resistance from the troops. I got up in the morning and did the usual mom things, got everyone out of bed, made their breakfasts and lunches, took The Princess to school and then went to the dentist (a little “me” time!). I had broken a tooth and spent two hours in the chair. The last time I’d had Novocaine was in middle school perhaps, so I was a bit unpracticed. When they asked me to rinse and spit, everything went flying! They probably had to hose down the whole room after I left.
When I got home, I started dinner. Last winter I had made a delicious chicken pot pie soup, and wanted to make it again now that the weather warrants it. But I had kind of forgotten the procedure, and by the time the thing was done, I hadn’t really cooked the vegetables long enough to make them soft…but I’ll get to that. While that was cooking, I went down to the basement to start wrapping their presents; all the things I have been collecting since October with them in mind. After two hours of that, I realised that I hadn’t procured one of the things on Edison’s list that he wants: Harry Potter Lego Years 1-4 for Wii, so I called around looking for a copy. He’s been rather obsessed with HP lately, having gotten on that bandwagon much later than his peers, and he has been quickly catching up, reading books 1-3 since the beginning of November. Found a copy of the game not too far away, and I left (chicken pot pie in the crock pot) to go in search of that as well as some gifts to give their Sunday school teachers this week.
Took care of all that, picked up The Princess, and got back here in time for Clooney’s bus. Clooney’s a bit under the weather with a runny nose, and the cough is actually starting now, so I figured I would go out and get him some Mucinex, the grape kind that dissolves on their tongues, which my kids seem to find the most palatable. Edison got home, I got everyone started on homework, which isn’t easy because they are all distracting each other, and after-school snacks need to be distributed and all.
So then, at 5:00, the boys had guitar lessons, so we had to load up and go over there. I dropped them off, took The Princess with me to the drugstore for the Mucinex; the whole time, she’s complaining — she wants me to buy her something. What’s with kids that they think any time we step out of the house, they deserve something new? Mind you, I don’t give in. This just the constant battle of shopping with my kids. Usually I try not to do it because it’s such a pain.
We got back to where the boys were, and The Princess pulled out her little suitcase full of Polly Pockets for us to play with while we waited for her brothers. I always have to be the bad guy (and there’s always a bad guy who kidnaps either a princess or a baby of some kind) and these days he’s a Happy Meal manifestation of Sam Worthington’s avatar. Once the kidnapped baby was rescued, the storyline began again. Polly Pockets go to sleep; avatar slips in, steals the baby; policeman comes (he’s a PP version of the prince from The Princess and the Frog, and he speaks with a crazy accent); he finds the avatar and fights for the baby; the avatar gets away and they all go back to sleep. That’s the whole playing dynamic, like a CD on maniacal continuous play.
When the lesson was over, we headed back home, got homework finished, dinner served, and then the complaints really began. “I don’t like this.” “What’s this green stuff?” “I don’t want this…” etc. Now, I’m a pretty good cook. I admit that particular night’s dinner wasn’t my best effort, but it was a lot of effort, and after a whole day of just doing stuff for them (other than the dentist) I was a little touchy. Enough, you know? So I said some things about feeling unappreciated, because I was.
Edison ended up going to his room — adolescence has started and it’s a bitch. A little while later, this note came flying into the kitchen in the form of a paper airplane:
Mom,
I am sorry for my mistakes. The only reason I yelled was because you said I never say anything good about your dishes. Do I say “Thanks for the wonderful meal, Mom,” or am I speaking Parseltoungue (snake language in Harry Potter Year 2)? Maybe I’m deaf and I hear it in my head. If I am hearing things, please write back. Love (Maybe), Edison
Clooney began collecting Silly Bandz this summer. I cannot say when these things first put their rubbery feet through our door, but it built and built until he amassed a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of them. I don’t buy them; he gets them at parties or at camp, and he’s been known to spend his allowance on them, at least until the Series 2 LEGO mini-figures were released a few weeks ago. But his eyes still get all glassy when he sees them in a store. The combinations of shapes, colors and other features (i.e. glow in the dark, tie-dyed, or sparkly) continue to mesmerize him whenever we pass a rack of them. And they are EVERYWHERE.
I have allowed it without encouraging it, because he’s into it, and because ultimately they are no more harmful than collecting baseball cards (though not as intellectually appealing), but I was a little disturbed yesterday when he came home and showed me two new ones on his wrist.
“Guess where I got these,” he began proudly. “Lucy and Gina dropped their Silly Bandz on the floor at lunch, and a bunch of people picked them up and I got these two!”
“What do you mean??” I asked, highly concerned.
It happened, just as I had thought. Six kids swooped in and stole the girls’ Silly Bandz off the floor. You always imagine that your child will be Superman, or the hero, the one who steps in and tells the others that what they are doing, if what they are doing, is not the right thing. So, I was more than a little shocked when not only didn’t my son do that, but he was also an eager participant in the crime. He and I had a long talk about what it meant, and how I saw the situation, and I hoped that he understood that what he had done was wrong and why. I tried to make him feel empathy for Lucy and Gina, and he promised to return the bracelets, but I wonder what he really learned. Did he learn that it’s wrong to do what he did, or did he just learn that it’s wrong to share stuff like that with Mom?
It’s a fine line. How do you teach kindness and morality, right and wrong, without choking the open line of communication between parent and child? Obviously, he’s never seen Manfrengensen or me take something that doesn’t belong to us, so it’s not a learn-by-example situation. I can only imagine that it will get tougher as he gets older and the pressure to really fit in plays a factor.
Have you had any experience with this kind of thing? Please share below if you have. Thanks.
First of all, I want to say that it was a GREAT vacation. I don’t mean to focus on the negative in my blog posts. We had a lot of laughs, took some great family photos and just had the best time. Clooney says he wants to move to California some day. It was just that great.
But I would like to tell you about the backlot studio tour that we took at Universal Studios. It was fun, but I was struck by the blatant sexism of the tour guide. I don’t know why this surprises me, especially since our whole objectifying culture comes from Hollywood, but I don’t know. I just figured on a personal level, in California, sexism wouldn’t be so out in the open.
First of all, the tram took us through a make-believe version of a NY City street, and there was the famous front of Macy’s there. The tour guide said something to the effect that the “ladies” on the tram should control themselves, as there was no actual shopping to be had through the doors. What now?
Then, we took a trip down “the famous” Wisteria Lane, home of those housewives who are supposed to be so desperate. Yawn…until the tour guide showed us a video that just “happened” to jam during a scene where Nicolette Sheridan is bent over her soapy sports car in a skimpy bathing suit. It stayed “stuck” for a few minutes. He “appologized” of course, claiming he didn’t know why it kept getting stuck on that scene, even joked that some guy in the third row was going to get in trouble with his wife for staring at the video too long, which got him a few chuckles from the crowd.
I’m sure Nicollette doesn’t care. She knows what she’s got going on, and she’s used it to “empower” herself, so whatever. Overall, the tour was fine, but those two moments kind of clouded the whole picture for me. I am not what I would call a big-time feminist, but I am kind of sensitive about the objectification of women, and I wish Universal would take those aspects out of their tour so that those of us who don’t want to be “amused” or titillated don’t have to be.
The best parts of Universal Studios, I have to say, were the Simpsons virtual roller coaster ride and the Curious George area. The Simpsons coaster was funny and fast, worth the wait even a second time. The Curious George area had a huge indoor ball area that we had the hard time getting the kids out of. In addition, there was also a water play area outside that strayed and splashed the kids at various intervals. We spent a good part of our day there. If you go, be sure to bring bathing suits and water shoes for the kids.
I’m stealing this meme from Betty and Boo’s Mom, who admits she stole it from someone else. I guess it’s okay to borrow, as long as we are honest about our sources, right? Anyway, the object of this game was to ask the kids these questions. Their answers (in italics) were pretty fun.1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you. – Edison Knock it off. – Clooney
2. What makes mom happy? When I hug her every day. – Edison When I eat my dinner. – Clooney
3. What makes mom sad? When I yell at my brother. – Edison When you don’t eat your dinner. – Clooney
4. How does your mom make you laugh? By tickling me. – Edison Tickles me. – Clooney
5. What was your mom like as a child? Friendly and kind. – Edison Me. – Clooney
6. How old is your mom? 37 – Edison. 44. – Clooney
7. How tall is your mom? Five feet, one inch. – Edison Sixty feet — no, sixty inches. – Clooney
(Close.)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Read – Edison Go to the park. – Clooney
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? Read – Edison She gets scared. – Clooney
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Being President – Edison Fashion – Clooney
(I did a “spit take” for at least one of those answers.)
11. What is your mom really good at? Helping me feel better when I cry. – Edison Making mac and cheese. – Clooney
12. What is your mom not very good at? Spanking me, because she never does it. – Edison Making a fire. – Clooney
13. What does your mom do for her job? Make us lunch for school. – Edison She eats diet food. – Clooney
14. What is your mom’s favorite food?
Diet Mac and Cheese – Edison
Ice cream sundae – Clooney
15. What makes you proud of your mom? She always helps me do my homework. – Edison She tickles me. – Clooney
16. If your mom were a character in a book, who would she be? Simba’s Mom in The Lion King. – Edison Minnie Mouse – Clooney
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play min-golf sometimes. – Edison
Go to the burger place. – Clooney
18. How are you and your mom the same? We both look like each other when we were young. – Edison We are both talking animals. – Clooney
19. How are you and your mom different? She’s older than I am. – Edison We are not the same height. – Clooney
20. How do you know your mom loves you? She gives me hugs every day. – Edison Because she hugs and kisses me. – Clooney
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? The Mexican Restaurant. – Edison The park. – Clooney
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