For the second time in my short life as a blogger, I've been meme-tagged by an evil blogging compatriot hoping to provoke me into playing a silly blog-tagging game, generating more content, and generally surrendering to mass hysteria.
Okay. I'm in! But only because I'm a sucker for attention. And because, like the "One Book Meme," this question interests me, and I like it.
By the way, I was tagged by Carl Thomas over at the Revival Blog who, believe it or not, actually got a touch snarky with me in his post. This is a bit like playing touch football, only instead of being touched, or tagged, or merely pushed, you get a wedgie:
Rich — If he completes it, (remember that "imminent" post on Ted Haggard
Last week saw a milestone pass in our house: AJ enjoyed his very first last day of his very first year of schooling. He has now officially "graduated" kindergarten.
We are very proud.
[Blah, blah, blah — skip Rich's philosophizing,
and go straight to the podcast!]
Never having parented before, and having no memories of Kindergarten myself (I never went, scofflaw that I am), I didn't realize there was actually liturgy for Kindergarten graduation. Maybe this is something we only do here in the Midwest. Or maybe it happens all over the world and I've been clueless for 39 years. Probably the latter.
I think milestones are important to celebrate — even if there's no real par-tay and spiked beverages involved. I mean, we really don't do these things well in
These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. 
)
These are a few of the things I've recently found of interest, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )
Update: I've added Jennifer's account of AJ's first day in the comments section, for the interested.
Today we sent our little boy to school for the first time. Nobody wept. There was no gnashing of teeth, wailing, or sack-cloth and ashes. On our part, anyhow. Instead, we were excited to see AJ off to a new adventure in his life, one that promises whole new rafts of friends, future sleepovers, new books to read, realms of knowledge to acquire, and numerous — I repeat ... numerous — parent-teacher conferences down the road.
He's not angry, just surprised and squinting into the Sun. Or maybe he's just part Ferengi.
Every parent believes their child to be the brightest bulb in the firmament — with the possible exception of overachieving, insecure parents who vicariously live through their childen, ever suspecting and fearing that their child will prove to be as colossal a failure as they imagine themselves to be.
Not us. AJ is not only bright, he is certifiably bright, even if nobody believes us the first time we warn them — err — inform them. My Bride and are enomously proud of our son (when we're not enormously vexed by his impulse-control), and I've already been justifiably corrected by my son on many observations I've made. The days are few until he truly knows more about things than I do and I become the student. Nevertheless, I hope to remain in service as his father, mentor, and guide — even through High School.
Friday night we went out to eat with the kids to AJ’s current favorite watering hole: Cracker Barrel. While my favorite foods are spicy Thai curries, the rest of my family prefer blander fare. Well, Jen likes Italian and TexMex quite a bit, but the kids? Oh, mac-and-cheese or boiled eggs is about as sophisticated as their palate gets. So, southern-style cooking is just fine for AJ and Elisabeth.
But it’s not the cooking that draws AJ there. It’s two simple things. No, make that three: First, an endlessly fascinating commercial enterprise with toys easily accessible to his grubby fingers. Second, a checker-board with rocking chairs right by the fireplace. (Our Cracker Barrel ritual requires a game while the drinks are coming.) Third, rocking chairs. After dinner, we tour the store, with a stop at the toy section. We pay our bill, and AJ gets to help with the transaction. We
When you’re four years old you can’t walk away from the chocolatey goodness that is an Oreo cookie. And there’s nothing better than a crisp Oreo dunked in cold glass of pristine milk--especially when you’re only four and a half years old. Well, perhaps reading while dunking Oreos might improve the experience. And you definitely should be relaxed, perhaps even seated.
So what happens when one is simultaneously relaxing his posterior, reading a good book in the best-lit room in the house, and dunking cream-filled discs of manna? Odds are, something will fall into the porcelain catch-all which supporting that tired derierre.
Hear why AJ was found brushing his teeth after experiencing an Oreo baptism I only shudder to imagine.
[audio:http://tatumweb.com/blog/wp-content/mp3/ajs-oreo-08-28-05.mp3]
(Or download the file, here.)
[tags]BlogRodent, podcast, kids, children, oreos, weird[/tags]
I enjoyed a great afternoon with my kids this last Sunday. Since I’ve been in a new photo-sig at work, and since I started this blog a month ago, I thought I’d take my wife’s little 3-megapixel camera with me. Sure, it’s not an SLR, but why be a snob—especially when the images are free? 
We got a late start and didn’t head out for McDonald’s Playland until very late, and by the time we got down the road—I mean, all of about 15 minutes—Elisabeth had passed out. You can see here that she’s pretty groggy, and that was after she and AJ had slept in the van for about two hours.
Yes, you read that right. I’m a horrible parent. I made my kids sleep in an air-conditioned van. :: sigh :: Oh well. Once Elisabeth
AJ looking thoughtful/worried/constipated. Take your pick.
AJ is frequently “spacing out” with this blank look on his face, and about the only way for him to get out of his zone is for him to randomly slap his own forehead with his hand. It’s this weird zen-like form of autism, I’m convinced.
However, the doc says it’s fine, and Jennifer realized the other day that she does exactly the same thing.
And now she’s slapping herself on the forehead for no apparent reason. I guess I’m used to being around people with a thousand-yard stare. I’m not used to them smacking their foreheads!
Now, I don’t really know he’s “spacing out” here. This picture was taken by Jennifer. However, I suspect he is, because anytime there’s a camera within spitting distance, he can’t help but turn on the ham factor. So, in the absence of hammery,
This is a picture taken by Jennifer. AJ's sitting happy as a clam (Are they, really, all that happy? Or is it just a sham to throw us off our game?), or something. That's “Diesel #10” in his hands, and a Thomas the Train T-shirt.
Why do boys instinctively love trains? What's that about? Are we boys hardwired somehow to respond to the power, the deep bass rumble, the dangerous machinery, the oil? Maybe trains remind us of God?
Click on the thumbnail to get a bigger version.
[tags]BlogRodent, kids, photography, trains, thomas-the-train, children, AJ[/tags]
