His favorite...

My four year old has lots of favorites. His favorite transformer is Ironhide. His favorite stuffed animal is Seashell, the stingray. His favorite food is cheese. Tonight I learned his favorite curse word. It wasn't so bad. We were watching a movie. He smiled when a character said pissed. I asked why he was smiling. He replied, "I'm smiling because he said my favorite curse word." I asked, "You have a favorite curse word?!"

"Yes. It starts with a 'P'." Just to make sure, and I'm not completely sure why I felt the need to, I asked, "Is it pissed?" Grinning really big he said, "Yes. That's my favorite curse word." I couldn't help but giggle. He looked at me and asked, "What?!" He used it a few more times under his breath in the next couple minutes. The fact that he wanted to share with me what his favorite curse word was touched me, however inappropriate that might be. I think part of what made me giggle is the fact that he even has a favorite curse word. HE'S FOUR! He knows he shouldn't use it, and I didn't want to make it "forbidden fruit". So I let him say it a few times to get it out of his system.

RIP Michael Jackson...

I think that John Mayer, my cohort, summed it up best when he twittered, "I think we'll mourn his loss as well as the loss of ourselves as children listening to Thriller on the record player." I remember listening to Thriller on a record player when my family lived a block from Tower Grove Park on Lackland. My sister had a poster of Michael on the wall and she may have also had the crystal-studded glove. Everyone wanted the zipper covered leather jacket and while it was out of reach for us, we were able to afford his albums. They were still albums then, at least for us, because we didn't own a cassette tape player. It's unfortunate that his reputation was marred with child-molestation accusations and other craziness involving buying the "Elephant Man's" skeleton. Thinking back on my childhood and even early teen years there were many of his songs that added to the soundtrack that is my life. Remember the theme song to "Free Willy" or the video "It's black, it's white." That video had cutting edge computer generated morphing images. Not only that but it also had Naomi Campbell (pre-crazy psycho throwing her cell phones at assistants) and Macaulay Culkin in it. I also remember when I was at my grandma's, who had cable at the time, and Thriller came on, I was told I couldn't watch it. I hid under the army green afghan and watched through the holes. I know that not everyone will, but I'm going to remember him for those good memories, and not the media-frenzy memories where they just wanted to knock him down. Goodbye, Michael.

Note to Self...

When making rice in the rice cooker, if it seems like there is way too much water there probably is. Even when the package directions say one cup rice to two and a half cups water, it isn't necessary for the rice cooker. The rice will still turn out alright. (We in the House Full of Boys aren't exactly well trained palates.) The starchy mess that will ensue will really be unnecessary though. So in the future, stick to the two to one water to rice ratio or even a one and one half to one water to rice ratio. Don't forget. Thank you for your understanding and continual push toward excellence.

ME

Finger-pointing...

Today at the Tower Grove wading pool, I was yelled at by a mother for pointing at her son to let him know that I was talking to him. I don't know that I will ever fully understand why people find that action so "aggressive", but fine people do. The reason I rushed over and pointed at him for a brief second to make sure he knew I was speaking to him...he was repeatedly pushing my child's head under the water causing him not only to inhale water, but also scraping his face, hip, elbows, and knees on the concrete. I started walking over the first time I saw him do it and, in the few seconds that it took me to get across the fifteen feet between us, he did it two more times. The Scientist was struggling to catch his breath and get away. This kid's two brothers and his sister all stopped when they heard me say, "Hands to yourself." He did not (obviously). So I did point and said, "Yes you." Unpoint, switch to a open hand. "You may NOT push people under the water. You need to keep your hands to yourself. You could really hurt someone. Do you understand what I am saying to you?" This exchange took about three seconds, he nodded, and then I went over to make sure The Scientist was okay. We went over to our stuff, right on the edge of the wading pool where I perched because I know a lot of the kids there are poorly supervised, and the mom came over with the offender. She says to me, "You are not his mother, so don't point at him." I replied, "I'm sorry if I've offended you by pointing briefly to get his attention, but he was repeatedly pushing my child..." Here she interrupts me to say, "I'm his mom and I was sitting right over there. That is why I'm coming over here to have him apologize." To her son, "Apologize." Son weakly says, "Sorry." Then she walked off. My issues with the situation are as follows:
(1) She was about fifty feet away from your children. Granted the rest of her children were not attempting to drown any of the other children at the pool, but one of them was. This makes me think that really you should be within a closer vicinity of your children (all five of them).
(2) She never even attempted to get up off of her butt until she noticed that someone had pointed a finger at her child, who was holding another child's head under the water. I am absolutely sure that you cannot be an effective parent while sitting on your ass.
(3) She finds a brief finger-pointing at her child more egregious than her child holding another child's head under the water.

Am I completely wrong in what I find the greater issue here? I would love to hear comments. I sometimes feel like I'm too aggressive when other people's children kick my children in the face repeatedly, hold my child's head under the water repeatedly, etc. But in those instances they do happen repeatedly and the other child's parents are nowhere near the child and/or don't seem to give a shit that their child is bullying another child. Am I going overboard in stepping in on the situation?