Not going to cry...

Tonight Aiden got his own juice box. He got it out of the fridge, took the straw out of the wrapper, and pushed it through the foil. All by himself.

How dare he. Doesn't he know that daddy still needs to be needed for his magic powers of getting treats and for all the wonderful things his opening bag powers can produce? Seriously, I almost cried.

Now granted, I encouraged him to try it. He'll be starting preschool soon and will need to be able to do things like that. Yesterday he made his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was a bit messy, but he made it all by himself. All by himself he also managed to leave it on the tv tray where the dog promptly ate it.

It's funny the things that actually strike me as nostalgic or tear inducing. PB&J was cool, but somehow a little plastic straw and the world as I know it is no more.

That's my boy

That's my 4 year old swimmer:)

The Aiden Sessions

Aiden spent some time laying down a few tracks for his upcoming album...

Merry Christmas!

So we don't really get in to the whole Christmas card thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, we could take the picture, print them on some postcards, mail them to everyone we know... it just all sounds like a lot of work. We generally skip it al together.

However, we did take this picture by the tree yesterday, and since my son looks like an absolute angel in it (he only was for about 5 minutes yesterday), consider this our online Christmas card.

Merry Christmas!

5 days left of a decade

I'm in my twenties... at least for the moment, that is. I will be in my twenties, in fact, for only 5 more days. Then next week it is the big 3-0, the start of a whole new decade.

I'm not worried. It's really just a birthday like any other, isn't it? I mean, I seriously doubt I'll be feeling any different at 30 than I do at 29.99. An no, contrary to certain opinions of certain other people who I won't mention, I'm not having a mid-life crisis. Besides the fact that that would mean I would have to be dead by 60, which I'm not exactly hoping for, I'm perfectly calm and sensible. OK, so I might have bought a treadmill last week, but I hardly think that qualifies.

I don't get much sympathy for turning 30, mostly because most everyone I know is older than that. For those for whom 40 is well in the rearview mirror, they don't really want to hear about 30. Although, last week in studying for an exam with a guy from school, I mentioned something about graduating from college in 2000. He said, "wow, I graduated from high school in '03"

See? Nothing is really going to change. No matter what age you are, there is always someone who thinks you are just a kid, and somebody who thinks you are really, really old.

New Generation

I was playing a Blue's Clues board game with my son today. We got it at goodwill for i think $2. He is really getting into board games these days and we didn't want to spend 15 bucks apiece on them at Meijer or something. It's good family time kind of stuff, but today was kind of funny.

During the game you get 3 clues and have to guess what the final answer is. We got all 3, they were camera, film, and smile. It's a kids game, so it's not real difficult.

As I tried to prompt him to think about the clues, I kept showing him camera and film, and how the film goes in the camera. As I looked at his blank stare I realized - he's never seen film before. He has no concept of film or what it was ever used for. We take pictures all the time, but as far as he knows cameras have always been digital and you could always see the picture you took right away. Film? You mean a memory card, don't you? That he might recognize, but film is a completely foreign concept.

Just wait until he hears about the tapes I grew up listening to.

Stay Safe

How does one go about staying safe in the world today?

Now keep in mind that this is an American writing about life in America. I realize that there are places in other parts of the world, and I have been to a couple of the nearer ones, where security is less taken for granted and personal safety and rights are not assumed the way they are here. But even in this country, as technologically advanced and militarily powerful as it is, how does one stay safe? Let me see if I understand this...

You can't fly on a plane to go anywhere, because we've all seen the devastation caused by mistakes or malicious persons on airplanes.

You can't drive anywhere, because a bridge may suddenly disappear beneath you. How does that happen in a country like ours? We're not talking about Indiana Jones style rope bridges here, were talking about concrete and metal monstrosities. How does it suddenly collapse?

If you can't fly and you can't drive, what else is left? Staying at home? Wrong again. You can't stay home because huge chunks of ice might randomly fall from the sky on your house. Seriously, that happened in Iowa about a month ago. Here's a link to the news story.

Even if you could stay home without random pieces of ice smashing your house to bits, what would you do? You can't eat green beans, we have been told just this morning, because they might contain botulism. You can't eat canned chili or brush your teeth for the same reason. You can't let your children play with Fisher-Price toys, because a million of them have just been recalled for lead-based paint from China. Come to think of it, your house is probably full of chemicals that we don't yet know how they could kill you, but later we will find out.

Even if you could leave and go anywhere, where would you go? The beach is full of E.Coli, the amusement parks are injuring people, and much of Montana and California are currently on fire.

Now you stay safe and have a nice day:)