There's a Light in the Attic With Everything On it Where the Sidewalk Ends

Our local library had a book sale the second Saturday of every month.  Among the shelves, you'll find books of every size, shape, type and genre, DVDs and CDs of the same, and even a few videos.  These are items either donated or that the library was removing from their collection.  The money goes to the Friends of the Library, and it's a great way for us to get incredibly inexpensive books to put on our shelves and swear we'll read one day.  We don't make it every month, but we do make it more often than not and have found some great finds.

A few months ago, we were looking through the large selection of children's books.  Sometimes we look to help the boys find something they might enjoy and sometimes we look to see if they have any of our childhood favorites that we hope to one day share with the boys.  Much to our surprise, we found a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.  He is one of Rich's favorite authors.  I still remember fondly singing "I'm Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor" for my kindergarten graduation. So it was a must.  We brought it home and put it on the boys' shelf for a day that they would hopefully be intrigued and want to read it or have us read it to them.

About two weeks ago, Teddy found it and asked Daddy to read it.  We give the boys 2 stories (or 2 chapters for chapter books) each at bedtime. Pete usually chooses picture books, since that's pretty much his level.  Teddy varies wildly from favorite kids books (like the incomparable Big Plans by Bob Shea - which I actually enjoy more than his Dinosaur Vs books) to graphic novels to early reader chapter books and, sometimes, even older chapter books.  (We're currently working our way very slowly through the 39 Clues series).  Most of these, he'll read by himself during the day, but he prefers to have us read them to him at night.

Every night, for the last two weeks, that has been what Teddy's wanted as his stories.  Rich uses the equivalent of 6 to 8 pages counting as a story, so they'd been reading 16 pages a night.  And the other night, when we got to the end of the book, Teddy asked his dad (since Daddy's been doing more of the reading duties lately because of my back) if they could start over again at the beginning.  Teddy has found his first truly favorite book.

Saturdays are our library days and usually a family affair.  But Rich had some important work he needed to do and he needed peace and quiet to do it in, so I took the boys by myself to the library.  Both Rich and I had books to pick up (for Rich The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean and for me, How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran) so I headed over to the holds section while the boys went to the children's and juvenile sections to pick out their own two allotted books.  I could trust Pete to be quiet for that long (though, sadly, it didn't last much longer than that and I had to rush us out without a chance to browse myself, but that isn't what this story is about).  Pete picked out a couple books that he found in the juvenile non-fiction section (a usual occurrence when he follows Teddy, but one I don't discourage), and I expected Teddy to come back with his usual choices of a couple graphic novels.  Instead, he proudly showed me A Light in the Attic and Every Thing On It, both by Shel Silverstein.  He told me that while he was looking for the graphic novels, he spotted these two books and changed his mind.  He had something new for Daddy to read at bedtime.

But that wasn't the end of it.  After we got to the car, both boys buckled into their seats and me ready to pull out of the parking space to head for lunch, Teddy started reading poems from the book to Peter and I.  He put the same amount of feeling into the words as Rich and I do when we read to him. He was living in the poems, feeling how he knew they should be spoken.  At stop lights, he'd ask me to glance quickly at the illustrations as he held the book up.  And I loved him for it.

Reading to us is a fairly new development for him.  Teddy's been able to read since he was about 2 1/2, surprising his PDO teachers and the elementary teachers he's had so far with his vocabulary and word recognition.  When I take electronics away from him for whatever reason, he'll gravitate immediately to the books.  And sometimes, he'll read even when he has electronics permission. (Believe me, I'm trying to get more reading and playing time and less staring at a screen time.  He's getting better, but he's not completely there yet.)  Now, he would read to Pete, sharing some of his favorite story books from when he was Pete's age and younger.  But if Rich and I were in the room, one of us would be the designated reader.  We'd ask him if he wanted to read and he'd say, "No.  I'll lay in my bed and listen."  One night, he told us that he wanted to read Big Plans as a family - I'd take the narrative, he'd read the boys' lines, Rich would read the other lines spoken by people and Pete would chime in with the myna bird's "I'm in!"  It was a step.  And him reading in the car was another step.

My boy is a lover of books and a teller of stories.  I hope this is something that he never loses.

Writers Workshop: Babies Come From Mommies Tummies... And Sometimes Daddies

4.) Are you feeling brave? Ask your child where babies come from and share their answers.


Last night, I was trying to figure out which prompt I was going to answer when my eldest came into the dining room.  And, in a fit of bravery (or maybe idiocy), I asked him if he knew where babies came from.  I suspected that I knew what he'd answer.  After all, he saw not only my belly grow with his little brother, but last summer, a good friend of ours had her youngest child.  So he's been around pregnant women before, at least enough to know that they come from a mommy's tummy rather than the cabbage patch or the stork or the hospital.  And I was right... to an extent.

Here is how the conversation played out:

Me: (Watching Teddy walk into the room for a cookie for dessert, having the light bulb come on)  Teddy, do you know where babies come from?
Teddy: (Nodding his head as he grabs a cookie) Uh huh.
Me: (Prompting) Aaaand?
Teddy: (Shrugging)  They grow in mommies' tummies.
Me: (Nodding) Ok. And... (getting ready to ask him if he knows how they get there before...)
Teddy: (Interrupting) And sometimes in daddies' tummies too.
Me: (Can't speak for about 10 seconds) Ummm.... Where did you hear that?
Teddy: (As matter-of-fact as only a six year old can be) On Fairly Odd Parents.  Wanda wasn't the one that was pregnant, Cosmo was.
Me: (Blink. Blink. Blink.)  Baby, you know the difference between a TV show and real life, right?
Teddy: (Mouth full of cookie) Uh huh. Can I watch TV now?

I decided at that point that I just didn't want to continue the conversation.  My brain was way too broken.

But curiosity also got the better of me, because I had to look up what a pregnant Cosmo looked like.

From The Fairly Odd Parents Wiki, via Google Search

Yeah.  That's pretty much how I felt when I was pregnant.  Didn't quite look that way, though.

Tonight, maybe, I'll have the other discussion with him.... on why it's impossible for a man to have a baby.  I don't think I'm ready for more yet. And, I hope to God, neither is he!

On the Road to Being a Pokemon Master

Teddy has been a Pokemon fanatic for the last few years.  It started by watching Daddy play Pokemon on the DS and on the computer. Then it moved to watching the show, getting the toys and stuffed animals and being able to quote Pokemon moves chapter and verse.  For the last six months or so, he's actually gotten into the Pokemon TCG.  At first, it was just cool to look at the Pokemon cards and see what moves were there.  Then, when watching Daddy play with my nephew, Robbie, Teddy started wanting to play as well.  We started with pre-made decks and, for awhile, that wasn't too bad.  He wasn't ready to play anyone other than Daddy.

But then we took him to the pre-release for the newest expansion, Next Destinies, held at Outer Limits Boro.  We'd been to one of the Pokemon Nashville League events before, but it had been awhile.  That had been like a toe dipped into the water.  The pre-release was more like cannonballing into the deep end.

Even though Teddy was the youngest player there (and, quite probably, is the youngest in the league), he was welcomed with open arms, playing against others in the junior division and being supported by the older players when one of his matches went into sudden death.  He didn't win much, but he also didn't care.  The fun was in the playing.  I was actually really proud of him, because, being six, he has a tendency to get upset when things don't go his way.  But he just shook the hands of his fellow players, said, "Good game" and went on to the next bit of play.

That's Teddy on the end on the right.  It was his last match of the day.

Because of his good sportsmanship, we decided that we'd try taking him to the Sunday League meeting up in Madison.  And, while the first week we went he didn't have a lot of people wanting to play with him, his visit this past weekend gave us a glimpse into his future.

Along with the usual "get together and play", there is a six-week program for some of the younger players called Catch-Six, designed to teach life skills through Pokemon.  We figured that it would be a good thing for Teddy to participate in, maybe helping him with some of the issues typical for six year old boys.  We missed the first week because we had something else going on that weekend, but Rich took Teddy for week two this past weekend.  And Teddy made a great impression.  Even though he's the youngest, he had the best recall of any of the kids in the program.  It was a great start for him, and I was proud of him when Rich told me about it later.

After the Catch Six program, Teddy went among the players to find people to play against and had a fantastic time, as we knew he would.  There were a lot of people getting ready for State next weekend, trying out their decks and getting a feel for how they'd play.  We weren't going to bring Teddy to States, knowing that he's still very much a beginning player with a less-than-optimal deck.  We knew that he'd have no chance of doing well and we didn't want to see him disappointed.

But Rich was talking with Professor Rick (the coordinator of the Nashville area League) and he encouraged us to bring him anyway.  Yes, he probably wouldn't win.  He needs to work on strategy more than what he has so far.  But it would be great practice.  Teddy is in the junior league, which runs up to age 10, and Rick predicted that by the time he was 9 or 10, he could walk away with all of it.  He's got the knowledge, he just needs to work on the strategy and get the good decks together.  That will come in time.  So getting him to more events like State will only help him in the long run.  To help him have the best experience possible, Rick also gave Rich (it gets confusing with these same names) cards for Teddy to help build his deck.

So next Saturday, we'll all be embarking on a new journey. Teddy will be attending his first honest-to-God competition.  And I'll be bringing him to his first honest-to-God competition.  I suspect it will be the first of many.  And I'm actually looking forward to it.  Is it what I was planning on doing for my birthday weekend?  No, of course not.  But do I mind?  Not in the least.  Because what better gift could I get than to see my eldest happy, doing something he enjoys?

Imagination and Brotherhood

Right now, there are two knights in my living room.  One carries a sword, the other a shield.  They are fighting dragons and fire-breathing goombas (from Mario, of course).  My youngest, the one with the shield, cries out, "Help, Teddy!  A dragon has me!  Help!"  And Big Brother comes to the rescue, killing the dragons to rescue his brother.

And when Teddy is besieged by the fire-breathing goombas, Pete shows why shield-bashing is a lost art.  Because brothers need to stick together.

Side by side, their imaginations take them to so many places.  Today, they fight dragons as knights.  Yesterday, they were Pokemon trainers, fighting wild Pokemon.  They've been pirates and super heroes and dinosaur hunters.  They've worked beside robots and animals, cartoon characters and even imaginary Mommy or Daddy (if we aren't around to actually help them fight).  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Part of it is that incredibly imagination that they share.  I remember playing castle with my sister in the front yard and how real everything was to me.  And I know, without a doubt, that it is the same for the boys in the world they create.  With their imaginations, nothing can limit them, and they will reach for the stars.  And a gaming-reading-writing-musical geek such as myself is so grateful that they have this advantage in life.

But another part of it is how close they are, especially when they play.  They don't always get along - Pete hits and bites, Teddy screams and sometimes hits back.  Teddy wants alone time that Pete just doesn't understand. They compete and get upset when they lose to one another.  They're brothers and that's the way that life is.  But they also count on one another.  Even if it's against an imaginary dragon.  They know that their brother will be there for them.  The work together and create worlds together.  And they really do love one another.

My boys drive me insane on a daily basis.  I don't always have the patience for the fighting or the whining or the incessant "now now now" that they seem to think as their right.  But when times like now come along, it pushes all of those thoughts and frustrations so far away that I barely remember they exist.  And it's these times when I remember exactly why I wanted to be Mom.

I wish I could take a picture of this, but my camera is being borrowed by a friend.  But I have a mental picture. And now I have words written down as well.  It will have to do.  Besides, I'm sure this isn't the last time knights will show up in my house.  They'll be back and then, I hope, my camera will be ready.