Category Archives: parenthood

gaming, parenthood Leave a comment

Raising Him Right

After watching one particular episode of his favorite cartoon, Connor asked 1.) if this game was for real, 2.) how do you play, and 3.) could we get it?

I gladly ponied up for both the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit and the Young Adventurers book box set from Amazon. Strike while the iron is hot!

I’ve never played D&D before, although that’s only because I never had a group to play with (or maybe no one thought I’d be interested, so I never got invited to join). If Connor wants to play with me and his dad for his first campaign, one of us grown-ups is going to have to DM… and there’s an awful lot of rules to absorb.

Even though I kind of wish we could game with an experienced DM instead of going it alone, I also hope this is a fun thing we can do together as a family.

Except Aaron and I can’t seem too excited about it, or Connor won’t want to do it after all…

crafty, parenthood Leave a comment

plain.

Yesterday was the Right To Read Week Vocabulary Parade at Connor’s school. When I was unable to craft a Rubik’s Cube themed outfit in a single day to personify the word “solve,” Connor asked if I could make him a “plain” shirt instead.

caturday, parenthood Leave a comment

The Baxter V Rocket

Connor constructed this rocket for Baxter during his day off from school. He borrowed my folding protractor-ruler to exactly measure the angles he needed for the nose cone/pyramid (so he must be internalizing some of that geometry he’s been learning).

Assembly of the rocket involved my (very cheap) hot glue gun, Elmer’s glue (when we ran out of glue sticks), and gaffer’s tape (when the Elmer’s was taking too long to dry).

I’m still not entirely convinced that Baxter enjoys being rocketed around the house in a box, but I could be wrong.

memories, music, parenthood Leave a comment

U Can’t Touch Ur Mom’s Music

Earlier this month, my son Connor (age 10) was telling me about a funny commercial he’d seen, where someone had cheesy Cheeto fingers and they kept saying, “You can’t touch this.” Even though I hadn’t actually seen the commercial, I knew exactly what he had to be talking about.

So, because I’m that mom, I searched YouTube for the official music video for MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This and made Connor watch it with me. He was actually tapping his foot for most of the song, and didn’t really get bored of it until right before the last verse (“OK, Mom, I get the idea…”). I even showed him the very beginning of Superfreak by Rick James, just to give him a taste of how sampling works, but he was pretty much over the riff by then.

As the icing on the Cake U Can’t Touch, Aaron found an Old Skool Hip Hop karaoke CD at Goodwill this weekend. Looking forward to embarrassing my son with that at some point in the future.