The Next Episode…

We’re preparing for our family trip to Disney World. We’ll be spending Christmas in warm, sunny Orlando! I’m the only one in my family who has never been. I’m excited, but my boys are stoked! Deion is upstairs packing right now. Jordan’s stuff is packed. They have cameras, TV’s, game boys, books, snacks and drinks all for the ride. It’s going to be awesome adventure. And I’m going to be writing every single day. So that means when I return I’ll more than fill you in on our adventures – or misadventures – and all we did and saw in Florida. It should be memorable.

I hope your holidays are filled with joy, family and fun. I’ll miss talking to you, but we’ll meet right here again in one week.

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Life and Times… Part 1

Deion’s ‘fro is growing rapidly. So is Jordan’s. But his wasn’t supposed to. Now I have two boys with enough hair to stuff a small pillow. The fad I thought would fade is spreading like a cold. And what’s worse, Deion walks around the house picking his hair, goes to Wal-Mart picking his hair and walks into church picking his hair. I’m sure he dreams about fluffing up his puffy locks.

Baby Sarai (yes, we have faith that it’s a girl!) has induced my poor wife with morning sickness in the worst ways. Unfortunately, she is only 11 weeks along and she’s tired of being pregnant already. What will we do about the remaining 29 months? We’ll enjoy the process, that’s what we’ll do. As far as we know, this may be our last go round.

Jordan had a recital on Thursday at Culpeper Baptist Church. Afterwards, we went downstairs to the fellowship hall for refreshments. Inside, we found not only delicious cookies and holiday punch, but a student art show featuring some of Jordan’s art! I was a bit stunned that Jordan had not told me he had art on display. If you know Jordan, you know that he is proud of everything he does. He’ll call me on the phone to ask me when I’m going to be home to see how cleanly brushed his teeth are. (Actually, he’s never done that, but I wanted you to see how extreme it can get with him.) So, for him to not tell me he had art on display was huge. And it was good – his art I mean. Trust me, though, I’m not one of those parents who thinks his kid is the next Picasso. I don’t deal in false hope with my boys. My wife and I are honest with them. But because I am an artist, I’m more critical. So when I saw his work, it impressed me. And made me proud, too!
Chris

Party Pooper

We hosted a sleepover for Jordan last weekend that included three of his friends. The only challenge to that is Jordan’s self–appointed bed time of 8:00 pm. But we made it happen thinking that he would stay up and have fun with his friends and by 6:30 pm they were all there and the fun had begu.

Deion and I were on a scavenger hunt with the high school and middle school teen group from church,so my wife was the chaperone of testosterone. I called in to check on the boys (really her) around 7:15 pm and all was well. Around 9:15 pm, I called to let my wife know that I was on my way home. That’s when it all unfolded.

Now I had prepped Jordan that he would need to stay up with his friends if the sleepover was to be successful. But instead of following through, he completely detached himself from his friends and went upstairs around 7:30 or so. My wife encouraged him to return to the basement with his friends and he did for a while, but by the time we spoke after 9:00 pm, he wanted to just go to bed. He didn’t want to stay up and he certainly didn’t care about leaving his friends or being the party pooper. So I told him to just go to bed if that’s what he really wanted to do.

When I got home, he was in the basement camped out with his friends. He persevered, but I was disappointed because he begged and begged for a sleep over and when he got it, he wasn’t happy or satisfied. In fact, he expressed that he wanted to see his friend Reese the most, who was not there. And while I can understand his feelings, what he didn’t see was a chance to build more friendships. And because he got so focused on Reese not being there, he didn’t have as much fun with the rest of the boys who were there.

Now he’s just nine and he’s not thinking like this. But this is a great chance for me to get in there and teach him about flexibility, sacrifice and friendship. Plus Jordan is dangerously left brained. He does not do well with change at all. In fact, it’s nearly always traumatic. Not to mention that he gets disappointed easily. But it’s one of those things we have to work on with him and stay in front of.

On Sunday, Reese’s mom invited him sleep over on our next available Saturday. I’m a little gun shy, considering Jordan’s legalistic nature regarding his schedule, but if I don’t allow life’s little tests to temper him, he’ll never learn to preserve, and perseverance is 80% of survival in life.

Chris

Sticker Shock

I try to give my boys every opportunity to learn first-hand. A couple of days ago, Deion helped me install a new DVD player. Jordan finally got his chance to cook grilled cheese sandwiches two weeks ago. And now, Jordan looks for the opportunity to cook all the time as does Deion to find something to fix.

Last week, I let Deion put my new decals on my license plates, or so I thought.

When I returned from checking the mail, my wife opened the letter with the new registration and decals for my car. As I was about to go and slap the stickers on, I saw Deion studiously plugging away at his homework. I saw an opportunity for him to learn something new, so I asked him if he wanted to put the stickers on. He all too happily agreed.

When he finished his studies and I passed him the stickers. As he grabbed his jacket to go outside, I was in mid-conversation with my wife. Trying to get my attention, he asked if the stickers went on the front or the back. I blurted out both above my current conversation and we went on his way, fired up with joy.

As my wife and I put our coats on and locked the front door to our home, we noticed something oddly out of place: Deion had put the first decal on the WINDSHIELD! I gasped. My wife corrected him and he put the second on the license plate. I stared in shock. All I could think was how the glue on those things could hold a tank together. How would I get it off without the sticker falling to pieces (and not eat a $25 replacement fee!). Deion apologized immediately to which I told him that it was an honest mistake. My wife laughed. Deion sank in embarrassment. I was still the proverbial deer caught in headlights. When he was asking front or back, he was thinking windshield, like the inspections and county stickers.

I managed to scrape the sticker of with an exacto knife and place it where it belonged.

Lesson learned: Don’t be vague. Be specific. It just might cost you if you’re not.

Chris

The Pot calling the Kettle…

After walking the dogs just the other day, Deion trucked upstairs to the kitchen where my wife and I were talking.

“Can we send Leia back to the SPCA?” he gripes.

“Why?” we ask.

“Because when I was walking her and Huck, she doesn’t listen and she’s rebellious. She got out of her collar and ran away. So can we send her back?”

My wife and I stopped everything and looked at him in disbelief.

“You don’t listen and you’re rebellious. Where are we going to send you?” we ask.

Deion had a blank look. Then he smiled and groaned. We burst into laughter.

I love moments like that, when the lessons are learned outside of parental instruction. It seems to stick a little better, if you ask me. It’s like a live parable. The things that Deion does to us, God showed him through our pets. He knows now how frustrating it is when he does not listen or when he does not obey. Has the experience changed him? Not entirely, but it’s an excellent point of reference to use as a reminder the next time he’s not listening.
Chris

Releasing some Energy

It was the day after Thanksgiving. My in-laws were in town and we were meeting them at the scrum-diddley-umptious Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. We love that place and try to find any excuse to go. There is something about homemade ice cream that just goes over so well after eating round two (or round eight!) of Thanksgiving leftovers.

I got their new Watermelon Sorbet flavor, Jordan got Chocolate Devotion and my wife got Monkey Bites. But Deion had to be the odd ball – he wanted an energy drink. Exactly. Something you can get anywhere. But he’s weird like that sometimes. He wants to order the ordinary at the extraordinary and vice versa. So we let him have it since his main mission in life right now is to try them all.

After we placed our order, we were all sitting at a few tables yakking away over ice cream. My wife and her mother were talking and my sister was leading against the wall scraping the remains of any ice cream left in her styrofoam cup. Jordan and I were at a table talking. He was having a rough evening. I looked up for Deion and saw something you would only see in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

Apparently, Deion drank half of his energy drink and left the eatery to go outside. When we finally spotted him, he was running laps around the building feverishly as if he was under a spell and could not stop. It reminded me of Yosemite Sam and the whole “My biscuits are burning!” dialogue when Sam would run and run and run with his backside ablaze. We split open in laughter. They say that Red Bull gives you wings, but this was on whole different level!

But Deion is a nut like that sometimes and that’s what I love about him. His comic value far outweighs a lot of the foolish things he does, though some may count this among those. But I promise you this; I’ll definitely reconsider when he asks for an energy drink late in the evening. Who knows what he’ll do next time!
Chris