Sunday, September 28, 2008

Grant Eats Cereal!

This is my first attempt at editing a video and posting it to Youtube. I know it's not much (thanks, Windows Movie Maker), but it is a chance for you to see how Grant is doing!

Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feR-cvmYOR8

I hope you like it!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Jump 'N' Jive

So, one of Regan's little friends, Sadie, had a birthday party at this place called Jump 'N' Jive. This is a place where "inflatables" apparently go to die a slow death. If you are unsure as to what an inflatable is, take a look here. And here's another picture for you to look at.

You get what I'm describing, right? We live across the street from a park and when the weather gets moderately decent, all the rich kids rent these things then invite their friends to eat hot dogs, bounce around for a few hours and inevitably vomit inside the inflatable.

Sounds fun, no?

Anyhow, we got really excited about getting to go to J 'N' J because it gave us something to do on a Saturday, and we would never have thought about doing something like this on our own unless Rachel, Sadie's mother, hadn't won this birthday party.

Disclaimer: I'm already over my quota on run-on sentences, so you are just going to have to forget that I got an english minor in college, and forgive the endless streams of thoughts that reside in on sentence. (Geez. I just read that. And well, I ought to be shot.)

What I did not know about this place is that parents are encouraged to get right in there with their kids and play along. As a matter of fact, I don't know what I was expecting my two year old daughter to do without a little coaxing from her father! So, we kicked off our shoes, and went to the first slide we saw -- which was, no lie -- two stories tall.

There was no way either one of us was going to make it all the up this thing.

The incline alone was enough to render me useless, but Regan with a smaller frame might have had a chance if there had been adequate footing and hand-holds. There weren't. And that's why I said this is the place where inflatables go to die. These have to be the ones that have been retired by some self-respecting inflatable-for-rent company.

Well, Regan and I got most of the way up before we found that getting the rest of the way would be impossible. But, lo and behold, another dad and three kids were making the climb behind us. What to do, what to do? The other dad was very encouraging (I must have had a look of trepidation or retreat on my face), because he instructed me to hand down Regan. So, as I did, I lost my footing and took myself and Regan down the long line of kids and their poor, unsuspecting father.

What happened next, I sware, happened in slow motion: Regan and I slipped. I'm pretty sure that my sock foot ended up in the jaw of the dad behind me and Regan and I took out every single person on the slide. It happened in slow motion, with the sound of bowling pins being knocked over and Adagio for Strings being piped over the sound system.

But we landed safely. Granted, I was about two or three breaths away from actually needing medical attention, but we landed safely and soundly.

Then Regan ran to the next inflatable. Then another. Then another. She was unphased by the experience and realized that she might really enjoy these after all!

We thought that she would have a good nap that afternoon because she had spent so much energy -- and she did -- but I was the one who really needed a nap. No kidding, for several days afterwards, parts of my body ached that I wasn't aware could ache...

Really and truly, after that first, ill-fated event, the rest of the day was a lot of fun. Regan and I played as if I were a two year old right there with her. Kayla and I took turns playing with Regan and watching Grant. And, just like it was when I was going to birthday partys at Regan's age, those two hours went by as fast as any two hours I've ever lived.

We had a great day. Embarassing moments and all!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

School Starts

School started a couple of weeks ago. This is always a time of adjustment and that adjustment usually takes me three or four weeks to complete. I don't really quit working over the summer. Granted, the work is for myself in the form of freelance writing, but it's still 8 or 10 hour days. And those days are here in my home office.

So, the biggest adjustment I face is that I have to wear professional clothing and I have to take that 8, 10 or 12 hours a day to a different location: the school(s).

Okay, that's not true. The biggest adjustment I face is that, during the summer, I get to be home pretty much all day with my family. Yes, a lot of that time I am locked away in the office hacking out someone's flam tap/flam accent, turns into a flam drag, finishes with a double stroke roll based over triplets phrase for the snare feature in their show, but when it's lunch time, I get to be 'daddy.' When the kids wake up from the naps I put them down for, I'm there. I'm there at 3:50 in the afternoon when we decide we can load the whole family up in the minivan and still make it to Sonic by the end of Happy Hour.

Bottom line: when school starts, I stop seeing my family. And I hate it.

So, when I have a rough day, or have a stressful encounter with a parent, can't have a reasonable conversation with a coach or can't seem to get some chunk of music to sound just right, it opens up that wound that I'm not there in the safety net that my family creates.

I like teaching band. I'm passionate about writing music. But, I love my family. And band directing is hard because of the sheer lack of family time I get, especially during marching season.

An anecdote:

This summer, my now almost six-month old son, Grant, learned how to roll over from his back to his stomach. This is pretty big stuff in the world of baby development. The first time he did it, I was there! It was way cool and I can't believe that music and fireworks didn't immediately start right afterward! Heck, Kayla wasn't in the room, so this is one of those really rare opportunities that I would see something like this before she would (major bragging rights, by the way...).

Well, the next bit of development is that Grant started to get up on his knees and start to rock back and forth a little. That has been cool to watch him do, too. Couple that with the fact that he can now sit-up on his own, and this has been a pretty cool thing to witness.

What's so hard to cope with is, now that school has started, I am very much less likely to see Grant start to really crawl. I have pretty much seen everything up to this point, from the moment it started, but with this, I am anticipating (but somewhat also dreading) the inevitable phone call I will get from Kayla. "Grant just started crawling for real, on his own!"

Now, I'm not stupid, and I know that I'm not the first person who has had to tackle this difficult balance between work and home, but it's just all so real now, and no longer so hypothetical. I know that you have to learn to strike symmetry between the time you spend at your job and the time you spend with your family. But, from previous experience, finding that symmetry is a never-ending pursuit.

So, here's to another year of having lunch with my family in the teacher's lounge and seeing them for a few minutes in the third quarter of a football game. And here's another year of telling a student I'll get something ready/together/done for them, then blowing it off because I am taking Regan to the store. And, not being as prepared for rehearsal or the week because the kids are dressed in Dallas Cowboys outfits and time must stand still for the game!

If there's a solution; I haven't found it. But, I'll keep looking.