<scene: Griffin, Maggie, and friend, Zoe, sitting at the little kid table having snack. I had just handed Zoe some tea>
Zoe: Thank you, Madame!
Griffin: Madame! Damn! Dammit!
Zoe: It’s DARNit.
Maggie: No, it’s dammit.
Category Archives: Griffin
Siblings
This morning, per her Wednesday custom, Sarah went to an outdoor workout in the pre-sunrise Minnesota air. (Blizzard last night? Pshaw.) But this post isn’t about Sarah’s well-known bad-assery. Just setting the scene: I’m solo dad.
So at 6:30, I’m down in the kitchen, making my breakfast, steeling myself to shovel the walk and trudge through the very deep snow to school. Griffin comes down earlier than usual — fully dressed — excited for a snow day. (His school was cancelled. Mine was not.) He settles down at the art table to paint some volcanoes. Maggie comes padding into the kitchen, bleary-eyed, and croaks, “Where’s Mama?”
I remind her that Mama vanishes on Wednesday morning. She looks sad and cold, and may burst out crying at any moment. Griffin sees this and says, “Maggie, would you like to paint with me at the art table?” Maggie looks up, but shakes her head… not interested. Griffin’s shoulder’s slump, but then he takes a deep breath, and says, “Ok. Would you like me to read a book to you on the couch?” Maggie considers this for a moment, and slowly nods her head. Moments later, they are snuggled up on the couch reading a book together. And my heart is bursting.
Artificial Intelligence
During a conversation at dinner tonight, when Sarah determined that Sana’a was the capital of Yemen, Griffin asked,
“Did you think of that, or did your phone think of it?”
(It was the phone.)
Little Free Libraries
Recently, I walked with the kids to some of our neighborhood Little Free Libraries. While walking, we started talking about whether we would someday put one in front of our house, even though there is one directly across the street from us.
I suggested that I might make one that was all for science fiction stories, and I would decorate it with space ships and alien planets. Griffin and Maggie loved this idea, and quickly came up with their own versions.
Griffin’s would be all about science and would have pictures of microscopes and tiny (microscopic?) creatures on it. He asked a few questions about the difference between science and science fiction, but once he understood the distinction, he was firmly committed to real science.
Maggie, of course, shouted, “FROZEN!” When I asked her how it should be decorated, she looked at me like I was hopelessly ignorant, and said, “ELSA!” followed by a whooshing sound which I took to be the sound of Elsa’s ice magic.
Skiing
I finally have a pair of cross-country skis. One step closer to being a real Minnesotan. (Ice fishing next year?) We went out as a family on Tuesday, after our first real snow, and then I went again on Thursday morning on my own. It’s a short, easy trail at Highland golf course, but I’m an unsteady amateur, so it’s exactly what I need.
Beginners at work.
Skiers in action.
Maggie actually has some skis from a garage sale, but can’t make it on a real trail yet.
Arrived shortly after sunrise.
Like that spray tan? (Actually, just wind and exertion on a very cold morning.)
He knows me so well…
After I affirm (with a positive grunt) that water freezes at 36 degrees, Griffin twists his head and asks, matter-of-factly,
“Daddy, are you for real listening?”
Busted.
Griffin Music
Music can be tough with our kids. Some children’s music is hard to listen to as an adult. And Griffin and Maggie both like to repeat songs endlessly, bludgeoning even great songs to death. They are also mercurial, wanting to switch songs, bands, and genres repeatedly, and always wanting to control it. My answer to this has been Pandora.
At first the kids were disappointed when I put it on, because they couldn’t make requests. For those that don’t use Pandora, it basically generates playlists based on some musical seeds that you create, but you can’t request individual songs. As you listen you can fine tune the station. I created a station for Griffin, called simply “Griffin Music,” seeded it with some songs that he liked, and then showed him how to use the “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” feature to mark songs that he liked or didn’t like. After he got used to this, he loved it. (Of course Sarah and I could also go in and “Thumbs Down” songs that drove us nuts.)
While glancing over the station details recently, I was shocked to see how many tracks Griffin (and Maggie, to some degree) had marked. We launched the “Griffin Music” station in 2011. Since then we’ve added nine seed tracks. Griffin has thumbed-up 228 tracks and thumbed-down 21. Read on if you’d like to actually see those lists, a snapshot of Griffin’s musical taste over the past few years. These lists are current as of November 17, 2015, and are sorted in reverse chronological order.
Continue reading Griffin Music
Not Quite as Bad
Donald Trump came up tonight during an eclectic dinner conversation, mostly between Sarah and me, but including various spawn-sponsored tangents. I don’t remember what we were saying precisely, but it wasn’t flattering. This piqued Griffin’s interest, of course, so he started asking questions about this Trump character. Both Sarah and I backpedaled off our most colorful aspersions — “ok, maybe he’s not a total idiot,” “he just likes to say ridiculous things,” “we just don’t agree with him about anything” — which only made Griffin more interested. (We usually keep the trash talk out of earshot.)
Suddenly, a look of understanding crosses Griffin’s face, and he says, “Ohhhh! He’s that guy… um, that really bad guy.”
“Which guy?”
“That bad guy. The one we learned about.”
“Where did we learn about him?”
“At the u-boat exhibit in Chicago.”
“Oh … wait … Hitler?”
“Yeah! Hitler!”
<between gasps of appalled laughter> “No, honey, Trump is not as bad as Hitler.”
All Hallows’ Couture
A conversation yesterday:
Griffin: I know what I want to be for Halloween!
A skeleton!
Sarah: Oh, I think that will be a fun costume to make!
Maggie: I know what I want to be for Halloween!
Elsa!
Or, I could be superman,
but I think I’ll be Elsa.
Sleepy Kiddo
Overheard tonight after putting the kids to bed:
Griffin: <whispering, excited> Maggie, do you want to go to sleep right now?
Maggie: Yes. Because I am SO tired.
Griffin: Oh. Ok.