Snow and Music

I had been looking forward to last weekend for a while. There are a few things in life that I live for. I got to do two of them this weekend.

Friday Night: For the last few years, I have been attending the annual Warren Miller ski movie. To anyone who hasn't ever been to this event, it is symbolic in that it represents the kick-off of the ski season. This year was no exception. The skiing and snowboarding was incredible, the soundtrack rocked, and everyone there was excited. The tricks some of the people were pulling were amazing. Makes me wish I were 10 years younger and had a lot more athletic ability.

Saturday Night: A number of months ago I was at one of my sister's house and we were checking out the free music videos that were on demand on cable. We watched a video from a band called Against Me! out of Gainesville, Florida. From the first time I heard them, I loved them. The music rocks. I managed to get all of their CDs and listen to them constantly. Saturday night they played at the Roseland in Portland. The show was incredible. The band was tight, the music was rockin, and the energy was high. I think a good time was had by all. I couldn't help but reminisce of the college days with my own punk rock band.

Male Bonding

I have been remiss in posting for a while. Not that I don't have much to say, since I have opinions on everything, but time constraints plus the fact that M is a lot more fun and entertaining to read than me have cause a time lapse.

Last weekend M had a church women's conference that she attended with her mom, aunt, and grandma. That meant that I had both of the boys all to myself for almost two full days. Now I'm sure that the mothers reading this are rolling their eyes, but truthfully, I was a little nervous. However, Jr, Sambo and I did manage and after the two days, the kids were fed, they got to have some fun, and they each had at least 4 fingers on each hand left when M came home. I even managed a lunch outting with coworkers for another coworker's last day. I'm not going to give a play by play of what we did because that is not the point of this. Rather I have two points.

First, I am extremely greatful to have a beautiful wife that works so hard to take care of the children. They have so many opportunities to learn and grow because of her and she is an amazing example for them and for me. I tell her time and time again that I am so glad I am not her. This is not to say that her role is not as important and that somehow she got the short end of the stick. But, it is to say that I am not capable of doing all that she does and would fail miserably if I had to.

Second, I absolutely love and adore my boys. There is no doubt that these kids were meant for us. Both of them have such unique personalities and strengths and talents. It is fun to be with them and watch them learn and grow. I can only hope that I don't some how mess them up. Hopefully, they will take more after their mother than me.

Spiderman

Buddy climbing at three years old

Buddy has a very unique talent. From a very young age he has been a climber.

Now, back when we we lived in married student housing in college we spent our time judging everyone that had kids (or two or three...). One particular set of parents "let" their child run all around the chapel during church. We said we'd never do that.

Then that same family showed up for church one day and their 2-year old daughter was in an arm cast because she had fallen off the kitchen table. To put it mildly, G and I freaked out. "Call DHS! We will NEVER let our children climb on the table," we said.

As a side note, wouldn't you know: Buddy was two years old when he escaped from nursery and lead my dear friend Shauna on a chase through another ward's sacrament meeting. He was yelling, "Get me! Get me!" and Shauna was very pregnant. And Buddy was just over a year the first time he climbed on the kitchen table. A lot of good judging does, we now realize.

By the time Buddy was two years old, his climbing had become a way of life, and for his third birthday, we bought him a climbing harness and got him started at the fabulous rock wall at our gym.

Buddy's first time climbing the rock wall -- third birthday

He spent most of the summer climbing the tree in our backyard.

...And he spent the rest of the summer really hoarking me off every time he'd climb over the fence to get out of our yard.

Check out those back and arm muscles!

Just last week at church I got chewed out because I was "letting" Buddy climb out the window in the primary room after church was over.

I can't imagine that his ability will serve him well in his life, but I hope it does because I'd hate for his amazing talent -- and my nerves (considering I'm petrified of heights) to be wasted.

Buddy and a friend scurrying up the mountain while on a walk in central Oregon

Notice he isn't wearing shoes or a harness here... Yikes!

The Good of the Economic Crisis

And the Bad of the Economic Crisis

We can't sell this:

Kinda strange. We put our house on the market and the economy immediately goes to pot. But at least we've got SNL to keep us cheery.

An Over-Active Imagination and The Effects of Stress on Children

And How They Inter-Relate

Buddy has a very active imagination. He goes from being a tiger and running around on his hands and feet and clawing at the tree bark with his claws to the point his fingertips become raw -- to being a sea monster -- to being a pirate -- to being everything in between -- all day long. When he dresses up, boy does he dress up (as well as dress everyone else around him including me and poor Sambo). When he's in character, he's in character.

The day before yesterday he came tearing into the kitchen where I was making dinner.

Buddy: I have been trying to decide what we should do for fun tomorrow.

Me: OK. Like what?

B: We should go to the refuge it it's nice weather. Or we should go to the zoo if it's nice weather. If it's not nice weather, we should go to St. Village.

M: What's St. Village?

B: It's that really fun place with the dragons and elephants and pirates.

M: I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you mean Enchanted Forest (an old-school "amusement park" near here.)

B: (Exacerbated) NO! I mean St. Village, not Enchanted Forest!

M: Have you been to St. Village before? Who did you go with?

B: I went with you, mom.

M: Where is it? How do we get there?

B: You go north, then south, then east, then west. You drive two miles an hour and it takes about forty minutes to get there.

M: I have no idea what you're talking about.

B: (Huffs) I'm just trying to use my imagination. Why can't you?

* * *

Buddy has had two nights of terrible nigh-terrors. Tuesday night was on-and-off crying and getting out of bed for about 2-3 hours which is extremely unusual for Buddy. It was annoying, but I couldn't sleep anyway and passed the time by reading out in the living room. I dismissed it thinking that would never happen again.

Wednesday on the other hand was horrible. He screamed and thrashed around in his bed for literally eight hours. He was hysterical, he was stiff as a board, he was screaming things I couldn't believe were coming out of his mouth. At first I was annoyed and thought he was being belligerent, then I became scared. I laid with him for a couple of hours in the wee hours of the morning and he told me all about the robots and mean scary men in his room. How they were cutting him up and he was bleeding really bad and how they were using his ceiling fan to poke him and how they were hurting Sambo and if I stayed in his room they'd hurt me "but don't go mom, I am so unbelievably terrified I can't have you leave my side." The terror in his crying and talking was unlike anything I've ever heard before. This whole time he was wide awake and talking totally coherently. But I'm sure he had to have been asleep. It was just so unlike the Buddy I know.

Much to my surprise, when the sun came up this morning, I realized he had been bleeding during the night. He had a terrible nosebleed that for whatever reason I never noticed during the night and blood was all over his bed and face. That obviously contributed to the realness of the dream. Today was a very rough day and I finally had to ban any talk of the night because it was stressing us all out.

I've been trying to figure out what caused this. And I've been trying to figure out how to prevent it from happening again. First of all, I greatly value my sleep. But more than that, there's nothing worse than seeing your child so upset and shaken to the core. Has he watched any scary movies lately? No. He watched Monsters Inc. with grandma the other day but he insisted these were NOT monsters in his room. They were real men and they were mean. He's watched Phantom of the Opera twice lately (his new obsession -- I know it's strange, isn't it?). I can't imagine that caused this, but maybe? Maybe an over-active imagination?

* * *

Although I'm starting to really form the opinion that children can really sense stress. We are relatively stressed around here. Nothing horrible has or is happening. Just the craziness of life. I feel like we're managing it well and quite frankly, I feel like I've been in a pretty good mood lately. Still, stress is stress and I just can't shake the feeling that maybe Buddy is sensing and reacting to the stress.

He's reacted to stress before. For a period of time a few years ago I spent way too much time helping a very needy "friend" with a whole bunch of drama in her life. Every time I got involved or we went to her house, Buddy lost it. It was weird. After a few times of that, I realized he could sense the stress in her home and literally couldn't handle it.

Exactly a year ago as a matter of fact in the midst of the extreme stress in our lives, Buddy's behavior was so horrible I seriously considered counseling for him and me. But then the stress improved and so did he.

* * *

What's the morale of this story? I don't know. But it worries me that a child's feelings can be so tender. And it really makes a case for doing everything possible to make the home a safe and happy place.

Interview with an almost 5 year old

So, since I haven’t posted for a while, I thought it would be fun to ask Buddy the same questions that M asked. Below are his answers. What I didn’t write down where the many things that he said I don’t do with him. He got tired of answering the questions about halfway through and started to add more commentary.

1. What is something dad always says to you? "I like to play with you and I love you!"

2. What makes dad happy? "When I listen to my parents."

3. What makes dad sad? "When I don't do stuff that you want me to do."

4. How does your dad make you laugh? "When you’re funny. This is the one we already did!”

5. What was your dad like as a child? "Played puzzles and played games and stuff."

6. How old is your dad? "21? Is that right?."

7. How tall is your dad? "30 pounds."

8. What is his favorite thing to do? "Go to SeaWorld with me"

9. What does your dad do when you're not around? "Go to the store."

10. If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for? "For doing stuff."

11. What is your dad really good at? "At fast running."

12. What is your dad not very good at? "Coloring stuff, like coloring in the lines.”

13. What does your dad do for his job? "Go to work and get some money for all of us."

14. What is your dad's favorite food? "Chicken and corn."

15. What makes you proud of your dad? "When you let me go to stuff like Disneyland and SeaWorld."

16. If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be? "He’d be Uncle Luke."

17. What do you and your dad do together? "Watch the Killers, play with cars and trucks, play dragons, and play pirates."

18. How are you and your dad the same? "We throw the balls at OMSI. Remember when you threw the balls at me? That hurt! Because we kind of look like the same."

19. How are you and your dad different? "My clothes, I think."

20. How do you know your dad loves you? "Because you give me hugs and kisses. I think that was the right answer."

From the Mouth of Babes Tag

I got this idea from Jackie. This is such a funny idea. I agree with her that a few of the questions made me feel really good. A few of them... not so much. Apparently from the perspective of my son, I have a real serious weight problem.

I interviewed Buddy (almost 5 years old) for the answers.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "I love you!"

2. What makes mom happy? "When I listen to you and obey Jesus."

3. What makes mom sad? "When I don't listen and obey."

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "I don't really know!!!!!"

5. What was your mom like as a child? "She helped her mom."

6. How old is your mom? "42" When I laughed he said, "I mean, 21."

7. How tall is your mom? "You are 840 pounds I think."

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Playing with her kids"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "She works."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "Working"

11. What is your mom really good at? "Taking care of me."

12. What is your mom not very good at? "I don't know! Why are these answers so hard?!"

13. What does your mom do for her job? "She takes care of her kids."

14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Chicken I think."

15. What makes you proud of your mom? "When you forgive me."

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "She'd be a car character."

17. What do you and your mom do together? "She helps clean up and she plays with me."

18. How are you and your mom the same? "We both came from Jesus and he wanted to make us the same."

19. How are you and your mom different? "Hmm. That's a really hard question."

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Because she gives me hugs and kisses."

The Cutest Thing I've Ever Seen

I bet you're expecting pictures of my kids. Not this time...

On August 23rd an Asian elephant was born at the Oregon Zoo. It's been headline news ever since and Buddy and I have been anxious to go see him. The little baby was 286 pounds at birth and now at just over a month old, he's 350 pounds, but compared to his mommy and aunties, he's just tiny. Interestingly enough, his name is Samudra and since our little Sambo has some Japanese in him, we wish we would have thought to name him Samudra (Hindu for lord of the ocean). That's a cool name and if you saw Sambo in the bathtub, you'd realize that's a very appropriate name for him.

Anyway, we've seen pictures of Samudra on the news and online, but oh my... the pictures don't even do him justice. We timed our visit hoping the crowds would have died down a bit because poeple have literally been waiting hours to see him. My brother and his wife came with us and boy were we lucky to not have to wait at all to see him. We spent at least thirty minutes watching him. We talked with the zookeepers and oohed and awed over every cute thing he did. He walked between his mommy's legs and nursed and sniffed around. Just precious. The zookeepers told us all about his birth and all about the world-renowned program the Oregon Zoo has to breed endangered Asian elephants. I'm not a huge animal lover, but I was impressed. I think I am now. Oh, and while we were there a mom brought her baby boy who was born on the same day as Samudra to take pictures by the elephant. Seriously, what could be cuter?!