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
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)?
When we go away on holiday, usually we end up in a dual-Queen bedroom room and each of us sleeps alongside a kid. This produces morning conversations like this:
Me: Storm was a really good snuggler last night. He would come over and hug me. Shane: Yes! I had a similar experience. Except, in my case, G would put his foot in my face and use it to push off.
Some time ago Griffin pronounced that his name is Jeff… and that he was a Moose. Ya, you got that right: four legged, furry, over-sized deer.
For the longest time, Jeff had a buddy: Bob. Bob was discovered in the toy hamper right about the time he was on his way to the donation bin. But then Bob and Jeff became (mostly) inseparable.
Bob helps Jeff get up in the morning. He’s silly and gets Griffin (er, Jeff) up in a good mood, mostly though talking about their overnight adventures. For example…
Bob and Jeff can fly (like Santa’s reindeer), so they tried out for Santa’s team. They didn’t make the team pulling the sleigh (yes, there’s some discrimination happening there) BUT! they did make the Santa squad by joining the cookie-eating team. You see, Santa was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, so he can’t eat all the cookies left out for him. However, cookies and carrots being the two primary food-groups of young moose, it’s perfect for them. So now they’re practicing for the big day by eating all the cookies they can get into.
Unfortunately Bob went to school one day… and didn’t make it back home. There were tears. There was a late-night trip to the school. And reward posters. Alas, Bob is still causing trouble out there in the world on his own. Maybe some day he’ll return.
The good news, though, is that in Bob’s absence, Cookie and Carrot joined the family. In a semi-fortunate turn, Griffin asked for a “sister” for Bob. So I had already crawled eBay with the right search/manufacturer terms. Now Jeff is accompanied by Cookie and Carrot. All is (almost) right with the world 🙂
I often hear you singing to yourself, which reminds me that inside you are just a happy soul. For this birthday, your classmates each wrote you notes complimenting what they like about you. In so many, they call-out your smile. Thank you for making everyone’s day a little brighter!
This year you started to sculpt and your creations are wonderful. You enjoy making your own comics and Lego are still a core part of your day.
You still love being cozy, and find comfort in stuffies. Your favorites at the moment are Lost & Found, and Billy the Llama. You like it when I come up with stories from their point of view and make you laugh.
Here’s you in your own words:
How old are you about to be?
9
What is you favorite color?
Ruby Red
Who is your best friend?
Parker
What do you like to do with your friends?
Play
What is you favorite book?
Overwatch
What is your favorite movie or TV show?
TV show would be the Casa Grande
And do you have a favorite movie?
Men in Black
What is your favorite animal?
Red Panda
What is your favorite food to eat?
Pizza
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Oreo Cookies & Creme
What is your favorite toy?
Clay
What is your favorite outfit?
My normal.
Cozy pants with anything?
Ya
What song do you love?
Ya. Keep it Mello
Who is your biggest hero?
What is that?
Do you have a person that you really admire and you look up to? Or persons?
Ya. You!
What are you really good at?
Ugh. Drawing
Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
Vegas!
Why Vegas?
Because I like…. I wanna to go there?
What do you want to do when you goto Vegas?
Do what I can do. I know what I want to do…
Which is what?
I could go to the M&M factory
What would you buy if you had $1000?
Nothing. I want to put it in the bank and wait for interest
I know you’re lying because you can barely hold on to $20
Griggin, today you are 11. You woke up happy and smiling.
[vimeo 356570257 w=640&h=385]
Tonight we get to celebrate with a dinner at your favorite Italian restaurant. You’ve got a few haunts you likes to frequent, and originally wanted to go to your “special celebration” spot, until I reminded you Italian was an option. Then it was a no-brainer.
This past year I’ve observed you make some excellent decisions and adapt to difficult situations. You’re taking changes (like starting a new school; working with a different Dyslexia tutor… AND 7:30am tutoring) in stride, and making me really proud. While you’ve got a few years before the world will let loose on you, I feel (today) that you’re on a good track.
Your temper is still short; even shorter even as “them hormones” are starting to creep in. You’re moodier; get angrier faster; are more resistant to the idea that Daddy and I can help in tough spots. This part is tough. I know it’s going to only get tougher too over the next 6 years, but I’m hoping we’ll all come out of it with minimal emotional scarring ;p
You’re growing to be more considerate of others. More often than not I see you watching out for your brother. You think of things that make him happy. You make choices that will make things easier on us. I thank you for that. You growing up into a considerate human being is the best compliment you can give us as your parents.
Now… onto this year’s interview:
me: What is your name?
G: Griffin
me: What is your full name?
G: Rogers!
me: Do you know what the V stands for?
G: Viktor
me: What do you wish it stands for?
G: I don’t know!
me: How old are you about to be?
G: 11
me: What is you favorite color?
G: Blue
me: Who is your best friend?
G: Hayden
me: What do you like to do with your friends?
G: Play… games
me: Such as what
G: Play sports
me: What kind of sports
G: Uhmn.. soccer and baseball?
me: What is you favorite book?
G: Let’s see: Rick Riordan books
me: What is your favorite movie or TV show?
G: I don’t know
me: What is your favorite animal?
G: Moose
me: What is your favorite food to eat?
G: Pasta
me: Any particular type of pasta?
G: Nope
me: What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
G: Cookies & Creme
me: What is your favorite toy?
G: Computer
me: What is your favorite outfit?
G: I don’t know
me: What song do you love?
G: Uhmn… Happier?
me: Who is your biggest hero?
G: Messi
me: What are you really good at?
G: Soccer and baseball
me: Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
G: Ugh… Hawaii???
me: What would you buy if you had $1000?
G: Another $1000?
me: You’re just exchanging $1000 in that case
G: Ok, fine, then I’ll put it in the bank!
me: You’ll put it in the bank, you wouldn’t buy anything?
G: No
me: But if the point is you HAD to buy something, what would you buy?
G: Off the rent? Of the house?
me: You’re going to help us pay down our house?
G: Ya: what else would I do with a $1000? If I can’t put it in the bank…
For Mother’s Day, G’s class assignment was to write a poem describing me with each letter of alphabet. He shared his poem with me, and I had the joy of reading it, while at work…. and busting out laughing. Here’s my poem.
ABC to my mom
A:awesome. You are very awesome to me.
B:Belligerent. You are very smart.
C:Casual. You do not get mad a lot
D:Dandy fine.youare very good.
E:excellent you are a excellent
F:fair. You are always fair to me and storm
G:glorious.you are very glorious to me
H:Hard-working.you are very hard working
I:laughable.you make good jokes
J:Jesting you are very humorous
K:Kempt you like to be neat
L:love i love you a lot
M:mom. You are mom only mom
N:nice you are nice
O:Obliging you are very helpful
P:Patient you wait for me and my bother
Q:quiet you can sneek up on me
R:Radiant you are very yoyful
S:smal you are not that tall
T:tea you like to drink tea
U:ultra you do a lot of thungs
V:very nice i do know that i alrdy did it but stiy you are nice
W:wine.you and dad like wine
X:x.x amsome you are doble amsome
Y:youthful.you are very young
Z:Zappy you have a lot of eangy.
My favorite part was “B”. I mean… I can absolutely BE belligerent, though I usually I try to keep that in check. It’s now a running joke around these here parts. I’ve proposed other “b” words…. like “brainy”, but he’s preferring to keep with belligerent. 🙂