I was just thinking about this kid this morning, as I lay in Oliver’s bed to wake him up (he likes to snuggle awake, which I will take as long as possible). I adore Griffin as an almost 15 year old, and I continue to be amazed at the person he is becoming. He is remarkable in all ways, and I love growing with him. I have no desire for him to be little again.
Except.
I do desire to be the mom I am now to the kid he was then. I know so much more than I did then about myself, about children, about life. I want to scoop that little boy up and let his little head fit perfectly into the space between my neck and my shoulder and whisper to him: I love you. I love you. I love you.
Facebook memory from 2011 of Griffin discovering his pockets.
Griffin and his friend, James (and a few other friends), dove into a programming contest last week: the New Year, New Skills Game Jam. The contest ran for exactly one week, from January 7 to 14. They worked hard and developed a prototype game called Wyre. James was the lead coder and Griffin composed the music and designed many of the graphics.
You can play the game here and see the contest submission here. A few screenshots posted below.
Congratulations Griffin and James! This took a lot of work to put together.
We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.
Griffin just sent this message out to his friends and their families (parents are still involved for rides). It warms my heart.
Good day, everyone!
I am excited to announce that next Sunday (26th), from 2 pm – 8 pm, I will be hosting another RPG session at my house (finally)! We will have dinner provided, as well as the game, characters, dice, and a trampoline. We will not have a lot of snacks, so if you want to bring some, please do (Ava, if you decide to come, some extra Wii and Switch remotes would be delightful!) My father, a very experienced DM, will be running the session, and we will have about equal parts gaming and other stuff. Please respond to this email so I know if you will make it!
My address is ■■■■■, St Paul, MN ■■■■■, and you can contact either me or my parents for questions at:
[email addresses removed]
Quick note: We have a new member! Everyone, please welcome Ellie to the campaign! Ellie, if you need help with a character or something, just contact me.
I hope to see everyone here next Sunday!
-Griffin Roy (Dragonborn Wizard)
For the gamers in the audience, we’re playing the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS), which has been my go-to game for the past few years. They created a wild array of characters:
Fred Half-Elf BardJack Cat-Folk ThiefMaryx Squid-Folk Martial ArtistThe Mineor Human ClericMaurice Half-Ogre BarbarianMozell Bolick Opossum-Folk Phantom-ThiefRed Human DruidZorgar Lomikos Dragon-Blooded Wizard
Note that the pictures of Maryx, Mozell Bolick, and Red were created with Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program that creates art based on written prompts. I’ve been experimenting with the service for RPG art like this. If you look carefully at Red, you can see some of the details that AI art programs struggle with. Her eyes are a bit wonky and her left hand appears to have three somewhat misshapen fingers.
We drove down to Saint Louis to attend Clay and Meghan’s lovely wedding. Everyone found new fancy outfits for the occasion. Oliver’s was the talk of the town.
Sarah, Maggie, Griffin, and I went back to the fair on Tuesday evening for the Brandi Carlisle concert in the grandstand. It was Griffin and Maggie’s first big concert, and Brandi set the bar pretty high. It was a phenomenal show.
Well, it was Griffin’s first day, even if I had already been at school for a week of meetings and classroom prep. It’s hard to believe that Griffin is done with middle school!
Today was Oliver’s “Fly-up” ceremony where he transitions from Children’s House into the elementary school. In Montessori terms, he’s not only moving into a new classroom next year (as a first grader), but he is moving into another developmental stage (or “plane of development”). Here’s how his teacher described it in a recent email:
Fly-up is a celebration to mark the passing from one plane of development to the next. You probably already see signs of your second plane child: abstract thinking, reasoning mind, strong sense of what is just and fair, strong inclination to be with and work alongside peers. The fly-up ceremony is a visual representation of this internal growth.
At the celebration, each child will run down the hallway from the Children’s House wing, out the door and into the elementary courtyard where they are greeted by the elementary children, teachers and parents.
In honor of the occasion, Oliver decided to wear a festive fancy shirt and a top hat from our costume closet. He looks pretty dashing! (Maggie dressed up for the occasion, too.)
One of Griffin’s birthday presents was a sushi-making kit. The crowd was unanimous: we must make sushi immediately. Andrew went out to pick up some fresh salmon and tuna while the rest of the family made the rice and prepped the vegetables. The results were delicious!
