Michael's Birthday

I have included some pictures from our cabin trip. As you can see, we spent most of the time outside in our swimsuits. There is no photographic evidence, but I was there too.

Michael turned eight years old Friday.

His current stats are: Weight - 54.5 lbs (42nd percentile)

Height - 47.75 inches tall (13th percentile).

He wears two watches. One on each wrist. He likes to time things. His favorite books are (1) The Harry Potter Series (2) The Pendragon Series and (3) The Black Stallion Series.

Michael's birthday was nice. Neither he nor Spencer insists yet upon a full "birthday week" (although given that I do, I am sure that it will not be long before that tradition is adopted by all). The birthday boy always gets to choose whatever he wants for dinner (I assume at some point one of them will ask for ice cream - probably Spencer - but to date this has not happened). For two years running now, Michael has chosen bacon quiche. We had "Death by Chocolate" Cake for dessert. We didn't have a kid party for Michael this year, but we did take two of Michael's friends, Henry and Eric, to the Twins game last weekend. Spencer was ready to pack it in at the end of the first inning. Michael questioned whether it was half time when the Twins switched from outfield to batting at the middle of the second inning. After we explained the slow pace of the game (and that baseball has innings, rather than quarters and halves), everyone seemed to settle in and all four boys really seemed to enjoy screaming and eating caramel corn.

In honor of Michael's birthday, I will provide two recent Michael quotes, and then I will give the brief (as if I tell any brief stories) explanation for the title of this little blog.

First the quotes. Yesterday at my mom's while we were loaded down with bags, waiting for someone to open the door for us, Michael said, "Will someone open the damn door?" Needless to say, I was somewhat taken aback by this crude comment from my sweet boy. The boys spent the previous week in my sole company (lucky kids), and I know he didn't hear this expression from me. But then what could have prompted this comment? Then I remembered. I let the boys watch the film E.T. Cute movie? Yes. But also back in the 1980's it was acceptable to have the young characters in a PG movie say "penis breath," "shit" and I'm guessing "damn door" as well. The second quote is from this morning. Michael told me matter-of-factly, "I'm always in the mood for classical humor." He was referring to Calvin and Hobbes. Now that's damn cute.

And now the explanation for the title of this blog. When Michael was about 9 months old, he would wake 5-10 times per night. Every. Single. Night. Patrick and I were quickly becoming incapable of the most mundane tasks. In desperation one night, around 3 am, I went on-line and bought a sleep video (evidence of my lack of judgment and inability to function). It was guaranteed to get a child to sleep through the night without forcing the child to "cry it out." And if (for some reason), you ran into any snags when instituting the doctor's fool-proof approach, there was a promise of personal communication with the doctor himself, the brains (and heart) behind the video. Surprisingly as it turned out, the approach did not work for us. I proceeded to email the good doctor. He replied by email. Okay, now stay with me. Unrelated to my sleep deprivation problems, Amy had recently discovered translators on the web, including one that would translate anything into "street language." She found much joy in translating emails from work into street talk. Now, here is where it is all going to come together. Amy decided to translate the doctor's email. Upon reading the translation, we noted that wherever the word "his" appeared (which was always in reference to Michael), the word "wassup" was inserted. And thus, Michael was nicknamed Wassup, at least by Amy and me.

So as not to completely leave Spencer out, here are a couple things that Spencer has said to me recently. Leaving Target yesterday morning, Spencer noticed an elderly gentleman. He said to me very quietly, "He is very old." I agreed. He then said quite passionately, "he doesn't use a cane or a wheelchair though. That is very impressive." Very impressive indeed. Additionally, today while riding in the back of my car Spencer said "I like driving with the window down." Then he paused. He followed with "In particular I do not like driving because it is bad for the environment." Sweet boy.