Max and I talk about all kinds of things, and you already know that he reads everything. It’s sometimes hard to figure out how to explain things to him. He’s worried about stuff like the environment, and recently, the war in Iraq. I’ve been trying to tell him not to worry about it (because he’s eight), but once he latches on to something, it’s hard for him to let go.\
He’s also been in his school’s writing group since last year (for 3rd graders, but they made an exception for Max), and likes poetry. He was home sick today, and wrote this. Again, it’s not like we spend a lot of time indoctrinating him…\
The Iraq War\
bq. The USA is bad to me.\
Being very bad to my glee.\
After the 2008 election,\
The USA will reach perfection.\
The Iraq War is over,\
So unfair! No government left.\
With great stubbornness,\
W. Bush refused to stop it,\
it’s true,\
so blue.\
He’s a great kid, but he’s got to learn to lighten up.
Category: Max
Yakity Yak, Talking Back
Yesterday after Max’s therapy appointment, he told me about a questions board game that he and the doctor played. One of the questions was, “If your walls could talk, what would they say about your family?” Max’s answer: We are a silly family. That is probably the best thing he could have said. It really warmed my heart.\
Kevin and I watched the premiere of Friday Night Lights last night and I was hugely disappointed. Some of the new story lines were lame and tired. Kevin liked it though. He was like, “How can you call this show bad when you used to watch Seventh Heaven?” Well. After I knocked him upside the head for doubting my taste, I said that I never thought Seventh Heaven was good. It wasn’t. But it never had the potential to be good like FNL has. So there. But y’all should watch Friday Night Lights anyway! The first season was superb and I have faith that this new season will correct itself shortly.\
TV BigShots over at TWoP is starting to really bug me. There are constant errors in the scores and values of the shows, multiple problems with trying to buy and sell shows, plus (and here is the biggie) there is no gaminess to the game. It isn’t about skill or luck. All you have to do is check the shows’ ratings and then buy based on the previous value. It’s an exercise in spreadsheet coordination, but it’s not so much a game. I would tell you my ranking in the game, but my score hasn’t been updated since last week.\
My fantasy football team is close to 200 points behind the next lowest team, so maybe I should stick to games that require no skill. I would really like to blame my poor showing on the many, many injuries my players suffered (seriously, if I listed my players, you would laugh), but that would be small of me.\
And how are you guys doing? Start any new hobbies? Fall in love with any new shows? Tell me! Tell me! TELL ME!
Max is 8!
Today is Max’s 8th birthday. Hooray! Wheeee. Yipppeeee.\
As a parent, I am done. DONE. He is a formed little being now. The parenting books say so.\
It feels really great to have accomplished this “parenting gig”. What have I been complaining about all of these years? It was a snap.
Untitled
Kevin and I were sitting around the other day when one of us popped up, “You know, I think we need to up our yuppie status some.” The other replied, “I have just the thing! Let’s put Max in therapy!” And so we did.\
Tonight was the first visit for Max’s sleeping problem and it went really well. The psychologist told us that the we’ve been doing all the right things. She thinks maybe he just needs an extra little something to get past it. We have a couple different strategies laid out, nothing major though. YAY for professional validation.
Brothers- Two Stories
Last night Max and Brian slept in the same bed, as they sometimes do. A few minutes after being tucked in, Kevin and I heard Max crying. He gets sad at night and frequently cries (a story for another time), so we weren’t alarmed or surprised. Before we could get up to the bedroom, Brian got out of the bed, stood at the top of the stairs and yelled down, “Be-dan Ma’ (Brian’s name for Max) is crying, Momma! He is crying!” Kevin met Brian in the hall and he repeated, “Be-dant Ma’ is crying. He has an owie.” How adorable is that? Max didn’t really have an owie, but I guess that is what made most sense to Brian. While Kevin was calming Max down, Brian kept repeating to him, “Everybody loves you, Be-dan Ma'”. Brian is such a sweetheart.\
This morning, Brian was playing with a blanket that has drawings of sheep on it and pretending to pick up the sheep. Max swooped in and pretended to steal away one of the sheep. Brian threw a fit and started crying, flailing, and then kind of attacked Max to get the sheep back. They actually fought about this for over five minutes. Several times Max tried to put the sheep back on the blanket, but Brian wouldn’t accept it; he wanted to take the sheep back from Max.
BarCampDC: The Kid Comes Along
\
by Kelly Gifford
(that’s Dr. Joe talking to Max)\
Max and I went to BarCampDC this Saturday. BarCamp is an “un-conference” (no set schedule, everyone participates), and they’re held all over the world. This one was organized by Jason Garber, Jackson Wilkinson and Justin Thorp. They did a great job, and were cool with Max coming and participating.\
I spoke on Rails, did the live coding demo I’ve done at other unconferences, and helped out in the portable social networking session.\
Here are some links related to those sessions:
- Ficlets, Rails and OpenID – I used this presentation during the intro to show off some of what Rails can do (also has some good OpenID info).
- Tapping the Portable Social Network – Explains some of the concepts behind the prototype I put together, and
- Portable Social Networks – The blog post that explains the prototype and presents the flow (and has a link to download the app).
- Brian Oberkirch’s Portable Social Networking Post
- Jeremy Kieth on Portable Social Networks – The post that started me thinking about how to solve it.
- The International Day of Awesomeness – Because I “sponsored” (on accident, I swear), I got to speak before one of the sessions. Of course, I spoke about The International Day of Awesomeness.\
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Max! When I originally asked Max if he wanted to go to BarCamp with me, I wasn’t sure he’d want to go. We talked about it a couple times on the way to summer camp and the more he found out about it, the more excited he got. I was excited for him to see me give a presentation and see what it is that I do when I travel. He had a great time. Everyone was really great with him. He was so excited to talk about Scratch and Hackety Hack and to learn from everyone. He was by far the youngest attendee there (I mean, Jason only looks 15). He was insanely well-behaved, and other than him clicking markers together a couple times or tearing paper, he was as well-behaved as any of the adults. He zoned out a little bit in the afternoon, but I think most people did.\
On the way home, we talked a lot about what he thought of the day. Even after almost twelve hours of non-stop geekdom (we left the house at 7:30AM and this was at about 7PM), he was asking when the next BarCamp was going to be (in the last twenty-four hours, he’s asked me when the next one is about ten times), and asking me if I’d help him do a presentation on animation and using Hackety Hack.\
Thank you to everyone who sponsored BarCamp, helped organize things, presented, and talked to Max during the day. I can’t tell you how cool it was to watch him talking to people and share his passion. It was great to share that with him, and to see him get out there. He said afterwards that he was a little shy in the morning, but that everyone was really nice. Max is an interesting kid, and I love seeing him learn and discover new things – and I love being able to share the things I’m passionate about with him.
Picture post!
Kevin twittered it, but this picture deserves a real post of its own: Max at BarCampDC\
He looks so professional!\
Plaid shirt? Check.\
Short-sleeve plaid shirt? Check.\
Back pack? Check.\
ID tag? Check.\
Animated expression while talking about computery stuff? Check.
My boys
Kevin and Max spent Saturday at a computer conference-thingie. Max loved it. Much more than I was expecting. He did utilize the markers and paper I sent along though. He wants to present sometime on animation and scratch. I am not sure what computer professional would want to listen, but hey- go for it, kid. He came home all psyched to hop on the computer and get started with some new project but Kevin was too tired. This morning he woke up at 5:30 (maybe because Brian and I were already awake and making noise) and immediately went to the computer.\
Brian and I spent all day Saturday gorging on preseason football games! Wheee. Brian wasn’t so happy with this, actually. Too bad, kid, you’ve got another six months of football to endure! I tried to teach him how to catch a football, but my boobs kept getting in the way of the appropriate position. Booo.\
The other day I went clothes shopping for the boys and put the bags on the couch. Brian saw them and asked, “What’s this?” I told him it was some shirts for Max. Brian wanted a shirt too. Being awesome, I said, “I got you some too. Here they are,” and pulled out his totally cute new shirts. Brian flipped out! He started screaming and crying, “Too big, too big,” (which is what he says when he doesn’t like something). Jeeze, what a drama queen. He could give the people on Project Runway a lesson or two.\
Last week Max asked for his first pair of name-brand shoes. Sniff. They grow up so fast. Since the shoes, Skecher Airators, were on super sale and available during the tax-free weekend, I decided to get them. He was interested in them because the supposedly keep your feet color by letting air in, or air goes out. Something. After wearing them for a few minutes, he was disappointed by the lack of air wooshing. I was thinking about taking the shoes back, since he wasn’t so keen on them. “They don’t do a thing,” he said, but I decided that it would be a good lesson that commercials aren’t so accurate. Ten minutes later Max said he wants Skech-Airs. Headdesk.\
Brian’s started saying, “Yank you,” instead of “Go” for thank you. He also says, “Peek-a-you,” instead of peek-a-boo. Totally cute.\
Last week the boys came home from Babba’s with a toy pet. It was an egg that when put in water, a little rubber lizard hatches. Since then, it has more than doubled in size. I am not sure if it is still growing or not. It’s kind of awesome. Max named it Buddy 2, after my dad’s dog. I want another one of these things so Buddy can have a friend. Currently Buddy is living in my large glass mixing bowl. I am not sure we have room for two. Hmm. Max really wants a fish tank, so Kevin and I are going to get one for him for his birthday (no one steal our idea!). I need to make sure the tank is big enough to house Buddy too.\
Speaking of birthdays, Brian got screwed out of his big birthday gift. Kevin and I had decided to get him a little kitchen, but the store didn’t have the one I wanted. We then spent a few days checking out online stores and shipping rates. By this time, Brian’s birthday party was over and we just sort of forgot about it. Oops. The kids have way too many toys though. So many in fact that it is hard for me to go present shopping for them because they pretty much have everything- blocks, trucks, little people, etc. How many trucks do they really need? Plus, Brian only really plays with two marbles, two cars, and a handful of blocks all day long. This makes me feel not so bad about planning to box up half of their toys for storage and/or Goodwill.\
Let’s end on a random note. I rarely agree with Heather Havrilesky’s Salon column, but this week she pimps the season premiere of Weeds (I stopped watching) with my all-time favorite quote:
My all-time favorite is when Doug and Andy are getting high in the living room and Andy asks the housekeeper, “Lupita, settle an argument for us. What do you call the thing between the dick and the asshole?” She answers, “The coffee table.”
Man, look at all of the tags on this post!
My Boys
Jen told you about the root canal, which means I’ve been home the last two days playing with the boys. We’ve had a lot of fun, and I’m exhausted. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
- Played lots of Wii
- Drawn pictures
- Happy hour with folks from work yesterday
- Went to see Meet the Robinsons (fantastic, recaptures the lost Disney spirit).
- Went to work to pick up the Chumby someone was kind enough to send me.
- Got cookies\
Now, we’re going to take a break for a little while, and then I think maybe we’ll go out for pizza.\
Jen’s doing OK. She’s locked in our bedroom with the other laptop, watching movies and TV DVDs hopped up on vicodin.
I cry FOUL!
Max woke me up this morning, a Saturday, before 6:30 for breakfast.\
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!\
Hmm, think my parents are up yet? I need to call them.