Travels With Gaga

Photo of a “Fully Grown Man” for reference    On the way to school this morning, Messiah and I encountered a road closure on Poplar, which is a colossal inconvenience. We had to make a U-turn and as we did, Messiah wanted to know why they closed it. I told him I had no idea...that answer never works for him. "BUT WHYYYY?!?" So I told him to see who could come up with the most likely reason. Gaga: Car accident, cars blocking the road Messiah: Pot hole so big a car fell in it G: Water main burst, road flooded M: Somebody- WAIT! LOOK! THOSE PEOPLE HAVE LIGHTED CANDY CANES IN THEIR YARD!!! G: (Switching gears) Fabulous! Look over there-that house has icicles hanging from their porch! M: Hey! There are red lights all over-WAIT! Did you see their gate? It had a sun on it! G: Cool gate. I don't want an iron fence with a gate all around my yard, but that gate is cool with the sun. M: You don't need a gate, because you have a one-story house. You don't want t

  In the hallway to the bedrooms in our house, we have several of my photographs framed and hanging on the walls. From the time we moved here and first hung them, Messiah has been afraid of this photo that I took in Saint Louis years ago. Even at 8 years old, he doesn’t like to walk past it alone, and he refuses to go down the hall without the lights on. The latter issue is not a problem; there are 3 light switches in that hallway.  This morning, he finished his breakfast and I asked him to go brush his teeth. He said, “But you still have that picture on the wall.”  I told him I would go back to the bathroom with him. As we walked by, he said, “Who is that walking man, anyway?” I explained that it was a sculpture on the street in St. Louis. He asked why it was on the street. I told him that in the area of the city where it was, there were many sculptures. “Was he a famous Walking Man so they made a sculpture of him?” I told him I had no idea but would see if I could find out anything a

 So much of parenting, or grandparenting in my case, is simply doing the very best you can not to screw up royally.  Lessons.  Why are there so many lessons?   Yesterday, as we were pulling out of the school driveway, Julian said, "I'd like to do something nice for my friend."  That made me happy!  I asked which friend, and he told me a name I'd not heard before.  "He gave me a brownie, so I'd like to do something nice for him."  This sounded reasonable.  So I asked, "What would you like to do?"  "Well, you know how we have to do an illustration with each poem we write in creative writing?"  Of course I did, we've been producing poetry of all manner this year; one a week.  "He asked me to do his." (Inside, I was slamming on the brakes, pulling over, and jerking my head around and screaming, "WHAT THE HELL?  HE ASKED YOU TO DO HIS HOMEWORK?  AND YOU WANT TO???")  "Well, you doing his illustration would be c

Middle School.  The mere thought of Julian being in middle school has overwhelmed me, beginning in May when I attended his promotion ceremony at the elementary school he and his siblings have attended since kindergarten.  I thought of the bus ride where he would no longer be one of the "big kids."  Now, as lowly 6th graders, he and his friends would possibly be the objects of teasing, the result of tween kids jockeying for position.  He was nervous the night before school started.  He had no trouble falling asleep, but was awake at 11:00 and never slept again.  He was up and down; in and out of two different bedrooms, lying on the living room couch for a while.  When I dragged myself into the living room in the morning, I found the throw blanket in a heap and a step stool pulled in front of the front door, positioned so he could look out the little windows across the top.  He'd heard something unsettling. A child of few words by nature at times of transition, he rarely gi

 I took Julian and Messiah to basketball practice tonight, and because he gets the bus in front of our house early every morning for his summer program, Messiah asked if he could spend the night.  Susie (a.k.a. "Mamaw") took the back end of the shower duty and helped him dry off and saw that he got his pjs on and brushed his teeth.  Messiah likes to hide.  He does it all the time and it makes me nuts, but Mamaw is more tolerant of that activity.  He was brushing his teeth, and she turned her back and the bathroom was empty.  He was nowhere to be found.  He is normally the most active, noisy creature, but when he's hiding, there's nobody more stealthy.  She asked me if he had come out to the living room where I was, and he had not.  She was truly baffled.  She walked back toward the bedroom, looked in the bathroom, and sure enough, there he was, acting like he had never left.  He thinks he's hilarious.

Julian begged not to be required to attend the summer enrichment program.  We made him try it for a week, with the caveat that if he really hated it, he wouldn't have to go.  Messiah was given the same choice.  At the end of the week, Julian chose sleeping in for the remainder of his summer vacation, but Messiah, as he told me this morning, is a morning person.  "Gaga.  I am totally a morning person.  Even on the weekend."  Since I get that wholeheartedly, I agreed with his mom that he should be able to take advantage of the opportunity to get a leg-up on second grade. This morning, he got himself up and dressed.  He was very concerned about his color coordination and checked with me when he got in the car to make sure he had made good choices, which of course he had.  We were driving along and he said, "Gaga, my eyes hurt.  They hurt really badly."  Concerned, I asked if he had any idea why.  "Are they stinging? Were you rubbing them? Does it feel like all