The Pinewood Derby et al

Now that Joel is the big 8 he is eligible for the cub scout program at church which includes the legendary PINEWOOD DERBY. Last Tuesday they made their cars and Friday was the derby. I tried to tell Kelly that people use all kind of trickery to make their cars as speedy as possible. I encouraged him to look on the internet for these family secrets that have been passed down from father to son since Adam used sandpaper to round the wheels of Cain and Abel's cars.

But Kelly felt that all these alterations were a bit deceptive and dishonest. He foolishly thought that Joel should do most of the work himself and that it should all be about the kids. An ostrich burying his head in the sand for sure! Doesn't he know that the Pinewood Derby is a place for the dads to prove their manhood? To see whose car is really the most powerful and explosive of all? A place where men can make up for the shortcomings they felt in childhood. If you were a wimpy kid who got beat up a lot you can reassert your missing macho by turning that humble pine rectangle into a real speeding bullet.

In the final standings Joel was ranked number 83. Out of 84. Told ya Kelly!

He did win one race, and he was so HAPPY! Jumping up and down and grinning from ear to ear. I love seeing hime like that. (Hence the reason I wanted Kelly to help him cheat:o)

They added a new twist tho since my older brother was a pinewood derby participant. The Bishop's car. Anyone who wants can race the B's car at the end, and said car is designed to go very s-l-o-w-l-y. So all the cubs can at least beat the Bish thereby leaving their ids, egos and superegos fully undisturbed and intact.

Unscarred, maybe the next generation of pinewood derby dads can actually let their kids take the lead and leave themselves at the starting line. We'll see.

Of late . . .

I made a real dinner tonight. I occasionally do this because my hard working husband deserves it. The kids usually hate it. But Joel looked at the chili simmering on the stove and said, "Um, that looks scrumptious!" Apparently scrumptious was one of the signature words on Word Girl today. Love that kid.

A couple of days ago they emphasized the word "appreciate" on another kids show, and for the past few days Joel keeps telling me how much he appreciates me. Like I said, LOVE that kid.

At dinner Joel decided to throw his grapes into his chili and we made a big deal of the odd additional ingredient. He thought it was hilarious and went into full belly laugh. The best sound in the world = your child's full belly laugh. Life is perfect for a moment.

Yesterday I had to go to traffic court. I tried to pay my ticket online the day before, but they don't let you. I took Eli with me to: 1. Help Kelly out 2. Get the sympathy vote from the judge. Little did I know that one morning's litigants for traffic court in Herndon is equivalent to the number of viewers at the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade in New York City. Eli and I were kicked out of the courtroom too due to Eli's being a little toot. I think the lobby was worse. At least in the courtroom we could have enjoyed some good people watching and maybe filled my voyeur vacuum by listening in on other people's bizness.

Anyway it was almost THREE HOURS before the judge called my name and I was probably in front of him for less than 30 seconds. He dismissed my ticket fee, but said I'll still have to pay court costs. If I ever get another ticket, I'm paying that baby real quick like. I've experienced enough traffic court for one lifetime.

On the flip side it was good to have some one on one time with Eli. I had to get creative to stop the "I wanna go home" endless whines. I told him some stories from when Mommy was a little girl and he was such a captive audience. Whenever I tell him stories about my childhood I can always be sure within the next few days to hear an earnest story about when he was a little girl. I don't think he quite has the gender identity thing down yet.

We got a new stove. Black. For the first time in my adult life of owning my own residence I have all matching, relatively new appliances. I think I am almost regular people now. (Yeah right, that will happen). We sold our old one on craig's list for $175. The new one was about $600 with tax.

And then we have the Haiti earthquake and people who never had much to begin with now have nothing. I felt kind of lame having to have my matching kitchen appliances when the world is filled with people like the Haitians who live on next to nothing. I and most people need to have a broader world view than the Jones'. To assuage my guilt I did give $25 to the Clinton Foundation for Haiti. Ain't I a freakin' saint?

I Got it Dad

Kelly was with the kids in the car and they noticed someone in an adjacent car smoking. Kelly decided to use this opportunity to pontificate about the perils of tobaccy. Naturally this led him to a discussion about the demon liquor. Although I'm not sure Joel or Eli has any idea what alcohol is. Kelly then started on the drug talk, but Joel interrupted, "Dad, I got it."

I LOVE Cara's little voice. It's amazing for me to hear that baby tongue slip around not only nouns and verbs but adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, etc. Today she told me, "Mama, I wanna play 'Time is it Mr. Wolf' and hide and seek, okay?

At church she likes to stack the hymn books so she can sit on top of them and be just as tall as anyone else. Afterall ain't nobody got nothin' on her, why would she subjugate herself to another?

Joel's 8!

Our sweet Joel is eight years old today. Putting eight candles on his cake really felt like a lot. I can't believe we've had him for eight whole years! Time flies when you're having fun.

We had his party a bit later at 7 pm so Laurie and Julie could come. He really liked all his presents, mostly games. I bought him Boggle thinking it would be perfect for him and it is. The kind they sell now has the letter cubes enclosed so you can't lose them. Good upgrade!

Eli liked playing with Joel's Connect 4 Sponge Bob Square Pants edition. Kelly got Joel a game called Forget About It (or something like that). It's similiar to Yatzhee. I enjoyed sitting (when I could) with Cara watching Joel and Kelly play one game and Julie and Eli play another. Seemed like the perfect happy family picture.

Christmas wasn't the best for me. We had a huge snow storm and school got cancelled the Monday thru Wednesday before Christmas vacation. Argh! I needed that time to finish shopping, wrap presents, clean the house . . . Didn't get done like I wanted it to. Except the present wrapping, Kelly did all that. Then Christmas eve comes and I feel like caca. Christmas morning was even worse. I couldn't even bare to be their for all the present opening -- my favorite part. I had to go to bed.

Then come Sunday Kelly got sick. So much for the fun stuff we were going to do the week between Christmas and New Year's. The kids mostly watched TV 24/7 while Kelly and I recovered. It was disappointing. Oh well, what can you do?

Despite that, the kids had a good Christmas and liked their presents. We heard a lot of "This is just what I wanted!"

We even chopped down our own Christmas tree this year -- at a Christmas tree farm of course. Kelly, Joel and Eli picked out a white pine which grow everywhere around here. Tree was great except that it has long slippery needles and when the kids tried to put the ornaments on they kept falling off which was frustrating for them. Also white pines don't have that Frasier fir Christmas tree smell. But it stayed alive since it was fresh cut.