If stalling had a shape, it'd be a...

I love how my children's personalities reveal themselves at bedtime. AJ's curious mind takes over in a last ditch attempt to keep me talking and thus delay the inevitable, "Go to sleep!" He asks a lot of questions. About the history of the world, why certain events happened or why people acted in a certain way.

Sydney, meanwhile, mixes humor and sweetness. And it works for her. For about as long as AJ's questions work for him.

One evening earlier this week, as she snuggled under the covers waiting for me to lay down next to her, Sydney told me, "I hope I don't have that bad dream tonight. AJ said there's no such thing as monsters."

"That's right," I agreed.

"But there are such thing as snakes," she continued. "I don't like snakes."

Recognizing she was running out of things to say on that topic, Sydney quickly switched gears.

"Mom, I can make a heart with my hands!"

"That's very nice, Sydney. Now you need to go to sleep."

"Mom, I love you."

And just like that, she gets me to snuggle with her every time.

My favorite wild things

If I'd been on a game show last week, there are three questions I know I would have gotten wrong:

• Who is the award-winning author of the children's book Where The Wild Things Are?
• Who is Maurice Sendak?
• Is Maurice Sendak still alive?

And yet when I heard yesterday that he'd died, which is what made me think of him at all, I couldn't help but feel a certain sadness.

I love his book!

I can remember reading it, or at least having had it read to me, in the cool tree house reading room at Earle Brown Elementary School. Quite honestly, I don't know if I understood back then that the story of Max's imaginary trip was just a dream.

But I've had plenty of opportunities since to read the book and figure it out. Probably somewhere i the ballpark of 100+ opportunities. Because that's how many times I think I've read the book to a new generation of fans, who were only two happy last night to demonstrate their versions of wild things.

 

There's something magical about the story. When I suggested reading it at bedtime last night, AJ at first rolled his eyes. "There's not that many words, Mom," said the boy who now reads chapter books and thus has clearly advanced beyond a picture book.

But Sydney liked the idea and so, when we settled on the couch, AJ dutifully climbed over next to us as I began.

"The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind

and another"

(we always must pause at this point to note how much the dog Max is chasing looks like Grandpa and Grandma's dog Dudley.)

The story continued and AJ became engrossed as I knew he would. On the page where Max boards a boat, AJ pointed out as he always does that the boat says M-A-X.

"And when he came to the place where the wild things are

they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth

and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws

till Max said..."

"Quiet!" AJ shouted.

Apparently it's been too long since we last read this book. AJ is losing his touch. I showed him the words to read and we tried again.

"till Max said..."

"BE STILL!" AJ got it right this time.

When we got to the pages without words, showing the wild things having their wild rumpus, the kids howled the sounds they figured a wild thing might make as they showed their terrible claws.

At last we finished the book and it was time for my wild things to calm down and go to bed. What a gift Mr. Sendak had to write and illustrate a book that appeals to both children and parents. I can't think of another book we've read that many times that I haven't wanted to hide and/or destroy to avoid ever having to read again. And what a gift he has given to us all to create a book that connects us with such wonderful memories. Even if I didn't pay attention to his name until after he died.

Hockey surprises

Life's been relatively calm the last couple weeks. What have we been doing differently? Oh that's right, we didn't devote two or three nights a week to...

...hockey. But it's back. Monday night, AJ's team laced up their skates again after a three-week break in the schedule (if you don't count the two practices that were added during that time.)

Below is a fun/rare photo. It's AJ skating with his friend Gino (blue helmet). They've been friends since they were infants and have played hockey together for three years, but always have ended up on different teams. Until now.

AJ had a bit of an epiphany over the weekend. He still likes to play hockey, but he no longer dreams of a career in the NHL. Why? It's the fight factor.

"Sometimes when they drop their gloves and punch people in the face, the people get bloody," he explained.

"That happens," I told him. "If you want to play at the professional level, you have to love the sport so much, you don't mind getting hurt."

"I'm going to play baseball, instead," he decided, quickly switching career goals. "Then I won't get bloody."

But he figures he'll be safe playing hockey at least until college. Good luck with that!

Here's a short clip of him scoring in the shootout at the end of game. I love the little wave he gives us afterward.

Though I question what he was looking at when he gave the wave, because he didn't see two key hockey fans sitting next to us, who decided to surprise him.

Oh well, there was plenty of time for hugs in the lobby afterward. He was very excited to know Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jo saw him score five goals.

The acrobat

I'm pretty sure these aren't moves she's learning in dance class. But all weekend long, Sydney has been inspired to show off for me.

"Mommy! Mommy can I show you a trick?"

She then proceeds to attempt various acrobatic moves, all involving the back of the couch.

"Mommy! I have another trick I want to show you."

They don't always end well.

After politely applauding and praising her moves, I go back to work in the kitchen. And then a minute later...

"Mommy, come see my NEW trick!

I've started watching more closely the TV shows she's been watching, trying to figure out her sudden source for inspiration. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll also be watching plenty more cool tricks.

Savoring our Mommy/Sydney days

It hit me yesterday, and not in a good way. We're in our final month of Mommy/Sydney days. That's what we call Fridays when AJ is at school, leaving Sydney and I to play together. All too often, a good chunk of those days are spent with me handling work that I've brought home with me, freelance assignments or the mundane, but necessary, errands like grocery shopping.

And now we only have a few left. Once the school year ends, AJ will be home with us, not that that's a bad thing, but it changes the vote count on how we spend the day. And come fall, Sydney will be in kindergarten, and I'll likely be returning to a five-day-a-week schedule.

It makes me sad.

Determined to make the most of it, I dedicated the day to Sydney. Who chose this day to sleep until 11 a.m.

We adapted to making it a Mommy/Sydney afternoon. Quick brunch of hotdogs and watermelon, and then out the door we went. Quick stop at the grocery store. Not so quick stop at Target. And then we headed to Sydney's choice - the Aquarium.

That's Patrick (from Sponge Bob) in the above photo, she decided. And he's not wearing any clothes!

As we ran from exhibit to exhibit, I couldn't help but notice she seemed to bypass most of the ones that had anything to do with fish. She liked the turtles, the ducks and the boats, but when I called her over to look at the big tank of sturgeon and salmon, I got a "no thanks." And then off she ran to steer the ore boat.

The highlight for her came at the end of the visit when we checked out the gift shop. She picked a turtle craft kit. The white turtle came with four markers. Sydney only needed one. When we got home, she colored it green and named it Turtle.

I suggested she could use the other markers to decorate it, but she disagreed. Turtles are green. But then inspiration struck. Grabbing glue and pompoms, she gave it... can you guess? Those are barnacles. It's now a sea turtle, she told me. So she's changed it's name. To Sea Turtle.

As we'd shopped yesterday, I told her I was going to miss our Mommy/Sydney days next year. She suggested we could do them in the afternoon after she gets done with kindergarten.

"That's a great idea," I told her. "You're a good problem solver."

Skipping along beside me, she happily agreed, "Yes, I'm a problem solver."

Too bad she can't find a solution to slow down how quickly she's growing up.

Change of (dinner) plans

At the point when I left for work yesterday morning, I planned to make Swedish meatballs for dinner when I got home. By lunch time, when the temperature hit the low 70s, plans shifted to grilling burgers in the backyard. By the ride home, my car thermometer read 81 beautiful degrees (the thermometer doesn't actually say "beautiful", but it sure looked lovely to me!) I changed my mind again. Who wants to stand over a hot grill? Not me.

And so instead we let the staff at Gordy's do the grilling and frying. When I suggested it to the kids, big surprise, I got no argument.

AJ has now reached the "bunny ears are so funny in photos, I even want to give them to myself" stage. Sydney, of course, has to copy her big brother, though she prefers the two-handed bunny ear approach.

Sydney managed to charm a lobby full of people, including Gordy himself on this visit. After ordering our food, we waited at our table for them to call our number when our food was ready. Sydney looked down at the slip and asked me what our number was. I told her she could figure it out and pointed to it.

"1 - 5 - 2," she read.

"That's right," I told her. "One-fifty-two."

"That's my favorite big number!" Sydney excitedly exclaimed.

A few minutes later, we heard our number announced. Sydney grabbed our slip of paper and started racing through the restaurant. Hearing our number announced a second time as she rounded the corner to the front counter, Sydney waved the slip over her head as if it was a winning raffle ticket, and enthusiastically shouted, "We're coming!"

There were plenty of smiles and chuckles from other diners, which only added to Sydney's excitement. She bounced up and down while we waited for the server to process my credit card. The restaurant's now elderly founder looked over the edge of the counter and asked her if she was doing jumping jacks. Suddenly shy, Sydney covered her mouth with her hands, but continued jumping up and down. Gordy looked at me and commented, "wish I had knees that could do that."

At last it was time to dig in. My hot dog lover decided to almost edge out of her rut, ordering a corn dog instead. Meanwhile, AJ channeled his inner Dagwood, trying to bite into an impossibly high stacked fish sandwich.

After dinner, they of course still had room for ice cream, and so across the parking lot we went.

Hopefully, these gorgeous days will soon become the norm, rather than the exception. But for now, with a 30+ degree drop in temperature expected by tomorrow, we still must savor as many moments as possible of these sunny and and warm days.

Monkeying around

I freely admit I need to do a better job leaving work at work and not bringing it home with me. But sometimes it's not all bad. Such as when I have to rent a gorilla costume for a TV commercial shoot, and the furry suit doesn't have to be returned until the next day.

It's a great motivator when picking up kids from the after-school program and they're being pokey because they want to finish the game they were playing. "Hey, guess what's waiting in the car? A gorilla costume."

The five-piece suit (head, body, hands and feet) was zipped in a garment bag that was draped in the back seat between the kids' booster seats. As we ran a couple of necessary errands, AJ couldn't wait to try on the mask and furry gloves.

"This is probably dangerous," he told me from the backseat.

"Why is that?"

"Because I might scare people in the other cars and they'll crash."

If he had any idea how ridiculous he looked.

"I don't think you're going to scare anyone," I told him. "Though I bet there might be a few people curious about what kind of animal I've got in the back seat."

"Wait a minute!" AJ exclaimed a short time later. "Can we maybe get this costume again some time?"

"We'd have to rent it again. Why?"

"I could wear it to a Minnesota Wild game. Because gorillas are wild."

Um, yeah. But probably we're not going to do that.

Later in the evening, just before bedtime, Jeff stopped home from work to kiss the kids goodnight. When they saw him coming up the sidewalk, they ran into our room to sneak into the costume to scare him. Oh, the giggles of delight!

I've sometimes called them my crazy little monkeys. This just proves it.