I have witnessed the joy of learning many times. Sam learning to walk. Sara learning another language. It all seemed kind of sweet and amusing. Today I was a part of “Sara learning to drive”. I am not here to give her a hard time. In fact she did a pretty good job. She made it to Taco Tuesday and around the neighborhood with only a couple of “moments". The curious part of this adventure was watching someone learn something in a totally new way. Example. It’s amusing and entertaining to watch a baby try to figure out what foot to put forward and then plop down on its butt. Everyone points and laughs, the baby giggles and flops around to try again. It is not amusing OR entertaining when the 16 year old can’t figure out what pedal to push, how hard and how close one might be to crashing thousands of dollars of metal and glass into one another. All of my previous teaching moments have only placed the learning person in peril. This was a whole new ball game. You take for granted that a 16 year old can determine when to turn the wheel to get the car from A to B. You can’t. The one I can’t figure out is how long or how the message gets lost from ear to foot. STOP!!! – It actually doesn’t work. You can say or yell stop 3-4-5 times and not get the desired result. I’m also still in awe of the human brain and how a person can think it might be ok to simply drive across a lane of traffic without even bothering to glance either way. Are all kids like this, or does my kid have no sense of self preservation? I guess we’ll find out. Stay tuned.
Band-Aids needed
So for Sam’s 6th birthday the collective geniuses that = me and Jen decided to buy Rock Band for our Wii. This may eventually go down as one of the biggest mistakes ever. Interestingly PLAYING Rock Band is quite similar to being IN a Rock Band. Here’s why:
1. – All of the band members think they are better players than they really are.
2. – The latest gig ended up with the drummer freaking out and kicking the other members out of the band. (That was me)
3. – The guitarist / bass player is moody and can’t get along with the lead singer.
4. – Don’t even get me started on the manager…she is strung out on all sorts of medication.
Here are some promo shots of our band – Lorax
This photo is staged. No way would I look like that unless I was trying to look goofy.
Mama Leone left a note on the door…
I’m sure this is an often heard diatribe or comedy routine, but I’m going to write it anyhow.
I am going to start a list. A list of all the things I’m going to do at Sara’s new apartment or house (whenever that happens). Maybe if I write it down here I will have sufficient memory of these things to actually do them. Here is a partial list.
- I’m going to eat her food and leave all the dishes and garbage on the coffee table.
- Anything I get out to use I’m going to leave wherever I want. I guess hair dryer is off the list though.
- I’m going to borrow stuff from her and then keep it. This is my favorite, but the opportunities will be limited. I’m not sure how much use I’m going to have of her stuff, but I’m borrowing it nonetheless. It’s going to be weird to ask for the mascara, but it’s going to happen.
Again…I know that these are the dreams of all parents who feel their kids have dumped on them at some time in their lives, but I can’t wait. It will happen. Promise
The “Team”
After delicately balancing the camera on the TV and failing to get the timer to work about 10 times. I finally captured the entire collection of the “2009 Orion to Tampa Dog sled” competition.
Dear old golden rule days…
Well the first day of school has gone better than we hoped. Apparently when you become a high school administrator (paper shuffler) your skills get a little better. They basically had no record of Sara at her school this morning, but they made some calls, printed some forms, faxed some stuff and she became a student. If they could just do those things and get her to turn in her homework this year we are golden. After months of traveling abroad and encountering travel related troubles, we have pretty much shrugged off encounters like this and we even have kind of a laissez faire attitude toward bureaucracy and paper shuffling. Maybe this is where the French get it from? Sam, I could tell, was a little bit skeptical about going to school today. He wasn’t very talkative or excited, he went Larry on us and became reserved, nonchalant, and went into observer mode. If we can just get them home after the first day we will call it a success and check the entire year off the list of “things to figure out”
Silly kids
This picture sums up all that is right and wrong about my kids.
- One kid is trying hard to help the other.
- Neither of them sees the flat tire.
- They are in the middle of the road
- The big kid is making the little kid pull.
- They are together.