Gametes In Love

This dude is 11! Can you believe it?

He fully has his own sense of style and self. Last year on his birthday, he asked that he gets scavenger hunt clues for each of his gifts. THIS year he asked for a treasure map. I love that he looks to make things fun!

• How old are you about to be?
  • 11?
• What is you favorite color?
  • Black
• Who are your good friends that you like to hang out with these days?
  • I have many. I can’t name them all
• What do you like to do with your friends?
  • Play games.
    • Like what?
      • Video games
        • Do you have a favorite video game you like to play?
          • Minecraft
• What is you favorite book?
  • The Splatoon series
• What is your favorite movie or TV show?
  • Favorite TV show: the OWL House
  • Favorite movie…. I don’t have one
• What is your favorite animal?
  • The Red Panda
• What is your favorite food to eat?
  • Candy
    • What is your semi-nutritious food to eat?
      • Pizza
        • Sad marks to Mom that you’re marking pizza as semi-nutritional
• What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
  • Oreo Cookies and Cream
• What is your favorite toy?
  • Does my computer count?
• What is your favorite outfit?
  • My pajamas and a t-shirt
• What song do you love?
  • I don’t know
• Who is your biggest hero?
  • Me, myself and I
    • Modest too!
• What are you really good at?
  • Ignoring people
    • I was really expecting you to say something like drawing, or sculpting. Do you want to change your answer?
      • No!
• Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
  • Maui
• Tell me something that happened to you in the past year, that you wish could happen again?
  • Getting my second 5 star in Genshin. It’s an exciting experience.
• What would you buy if you had $1000?
  • Nothing!
    • Say more. Why would you buy nothing?
      • Well, a $1000 at this rate wouldn’t buy you anything.
      • I couldn’t buy anything that I’d want.
        • What would you want?
          • A gaming computer! And an extra $1000 to give away to charity
            • What charity would you give it away to?
              • Children’s Hospitals
• If you could have a wish, what would it be?
  • That all pets could live as long as their owners
• What do you want to do when you grow up?
  • A person that takes care of Red Pandas
• What do you hope to do before you turn (X+1)?
  • I don’t know
• What is a fun memory you have of the past year?
  • Playing games with friends
• Give me a piece of advice…
  • Don’t spend money on stupid stuff

The house is pretty quiet right now with everyone still sleeping-in on a Sunday. But snoring quietly two rooms over is a teenager. It’s official. Today, Griffin is 13!

In true teenager-wake-up style (which he’s been rocking all summer) I’d be amazed if he’s up before 10. Let’s see if I’m right 🙂

• Do you know what the V stands for in your name?
  • Whatever I feel like
• What do you wish it stands for?
  • I don’t know

• What is you favorite color?
  • Blue

• Who is your best friend?
  • I don’t know.
• If you don’t have a single best friend, who are your several best friends?
  • Most of the kids at school and baseball?
• Wanna give me some names?
  • No! That will take too long!

• What do you like to do with your friends?
  • Play games
• Which ones?
  • Play baseball, and then online games?
• What are your favorite online games?
  • Minecraft

• What is you favorite book?
  • Uh, don’t have a favorite book

• What is your favorite movie or TV show?
  • Let’s see: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them

• What is your favorite animal?
  • Don’t know

• What is your favorite food to eat?
  • Pasta

• What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
  • Cooking and Cream

• What is your favorite toy?
  • My computer

• What is your favorite outfit?
  • Pajamas

• What song do you love?
  • The Nights
• By Avicii?
  • Ya

• Who is your biggest hero?
  • Don’t know

• What are you really good at?
  • Games… or sports
• Anything in particular you want to call out?
  • No

• Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
  • Hawaii

• What would you buy if you had $1000?
  • That’s not a lot of money in today’s currency, but sure, you keep thinking that.
• Well it’s a lot of money for you
  • Ugh… pasta
• You can buy a lot of pasta with a $1000!
  • Well, ya. Then I don’t have to wait for you to cook pasta, I can just BUY pasta

• If you could have a wish, what would it be?
  • uhmn…Don’t know
• What were you going to say?
  • Pasta!
• Lol!

• What do you want to do when you grow up?
  • Don’t know
• What’s top of your mind, if you had to guess what job you would like to have?
  • Don’t know. That’s no where even close to my future, but oK

• What do you hope to accomplish before you turn (X+1)?
  • Not get COVID!
• So it’s a wish of non-wish, if you will?

• Give me a piece of advice…
  • Uhmn… don’t drunk drive
• That is actually a pretty good piece of advice.

• Anything else you want to say for yourself?
  • Why am I doing this?
• Because we do it every year.
  • Oh no!
• It’s my tradition
  • Oh no! I don’t see your mom doing this
• I know! I get to make my own traditions.
  • Oh, really? I wanna see your mom do this to you.
• Ok! I’m happy if grandma do this with me
  • Ok cool!
• I’d like to do that with her.

Storm is having a bad day.

It’s my fault.

It’s my fault… because I gave birth to him.

Ok… ya, that makes sense?

I picked Storm up from school, and shortly after getting in the car, he asked me “Why is the sky blue?”

I had to pause and double check if he was REALLY asking me this (because, no joke, I was waiting/preparing for the legit light refraction answer here this whole time).

Later in the day, I was hanging out with Griffin and said:

if your jaw is dropped, it’s ok — mine was too.

Griffin: (lying in bed at 3pm, surrounded by cozy pillows, watching YouTube, and eating a snack) Mom! You too can be doing this if you had all your work done

Me: (in my head) Jerk!

Griffin (as he has his water bottle on his head): hey mom, look! My head’s under water… and I’m feeling fine!

Here we are: a year past school’s going remote w/ COVID shut-down. Now our school is re-opening for a hybrid in-class program, with Griffin and Storm going 2x a week (for a shorter in-class day).

In preparation for a campus return there’s been a lot of parent community volunteering to make the necessary adjustments. Everything from marking off designated sitting spots in the lunch tables (6ft apart), to weeding overgrown yards, to disinfecting all surfaces. I mean, ALL surfaces. By the time we were done, each classroom smelled of Method. So, first day of school will now be linked to the aroma of a Method disinfectant bottle.

Kids, 30 years down the line, if the smell of disinfectant brings you feelings of anxiety and anticipation, well… now you know why!

Every once in a while I convince the kids to watch Good Eats with me. On our last showing, Griffin asked if there were ever any recipes featured that were “Bad eats”. To oblige, I had to pull up the Haagis recipe. I’m not saying that Haagis isn’t tasty (I’ve never tried it myself!), but Alton didn’t exactly go out of his way to make it look super apetizing.

Anyway…. we didn’t watch the Haagis segment, but I pulled up the recipe/ingredients and showed it to Griffin. Then, to keep things fair, I turned my phone around and showed it to Storm.

He was done pretty quick! I asked “How far did you get?”

His response? “I didn’t get past the first line”

Making each birthday slideshow is a treat for me. I get to re-live our past year and see so much of your personality.
Storm, you are SO big. Reaching double-digits aside, you have a big personality. You smile big, you hug big, you yell big, you love big. You wear your emotions openly: happy, mad or sad. I feel so blessed that you let us be part of that.
You creativity continues to astound. Your blend of engineering and art makes me so curious about how you will put this to use in your future. I can’t wait and see… though, I’m also not ready to let you grow up yet, either.
Happy Birthday kiddo! This has been quite the year, but you’ve been amazing through it. So proud of you!

Childhood just isn’t complete until you have a DIY ‘Do not enter’ sign

I especially like the disclaimer where he exempts himself from all above mentioned rules.