the busiest bee

After much anticipation, Dad and Ella are finally here for a visit. Ella (my sister, 10) is Cael’s new hero, and watching him follow her around and want to play with everything she touches is a quick trip back through time to when Tim was Cael’s age and I was Ella’s. There were some wonderful moments of play followed by the more memorable long stretches of torture. Lots of “mine mine mine’s” from both parties. I distinctly remember all the grown-ups looking on at our mutual plight in amusement, sipping their wine, knowing looks, and the bursts of laughter, maybe some crumbs of pity thrown out or a stern word. Mostly laughter. You would think, with these memories, that I would have more empathy. But no, I am just as bad as my parents were (and still are, who do you think I am laughing with?), poor Ella.

necessity is the mother of...

Cael is trying to get me to come into the TV room. I assume he wants me to watch ‘Cars’ with him. “I’m making dinner right now, Cael,” I tell him, “but you go ahead.” After long babbling pleas of protest he wanders off. A few minutes later I notice that the sounds of ‘Cars’ have been replaced by the theme song to ‘Chicken Little’ and I run in to see what had happened. Cael had removed the disk from the player, picked out a new movie to watch, managed to get it in, and even more amazingly, figured out how to get the DVD to play.

halloween

Cael screams when we stuff him into his costume. He and his dad go to a costume party, but without Judd on the actual day I can’t bring myself to repeat the tragedy. Instead I hand out candy at a friend’s house while Cael plays happily with Lightning McQueen (also know as ‘Re’ and “Fass’, or ‘red’ and ‘fast’) and Doc Hudson (or ‘Bluue’).

Cael is a Pokemon character and Judd his a Pokemon master. I think it is every parent’s fantasy to be the master of their children. But what else is Halloween for but to dress up in ways that are a complete and utter fiction!