The Halloween Superhero Ninja

Our Mighty Moose is almost four-and-a-half years old. He is very inquisitive about ages of people right now, and he asked Mommy and I often enough, "When do I turn four-and-a-half?" that I marked the upcoming date on our kitchen calendar. If you're so inclined to send him four-and-a-half year-old birthday wishes, his halfway-to-five day is Sunday, November 22nd (also the 20th anniversary of the first Toy Story).

When he's not asking us about ages, Moose is obsessed with superheroes and ninjas. My bedtime stories to Moose involve either a superhero or a ninja, and oftentimes both. Being able to be at home due to my work schedule (I never travel, and I'm always home for dinner) means I don't miss bedtimes in theory; in practice, sometimes I take a night off, and some times Becky does. But theoretical, I can be actively involved in bedtime each night, and for that I'm very grateful, because these times when I can ask how our kids' days went and fill my kids' heads with brief, imaginative stories and songs means a lot to them and me. 

Moose's favorite characters often come from the LEGO Ninjago series, which he has often pronounced Ninjango. I find that un-intentional mis-pronunciation endearing. So for Halloween this year, Moose wanted to be a ninja. And Costco was a heaven-sent time saver (though not so friendly on the wallet), because the store had cool ninja costumes on sale. I came home one afternoon to see this display, racing around to the front of our house as I parked my car:

He loves this costume! To his credit, Moose eagerly contributed his allowance money to help defray the cost. He wore it almost every day leading up to Halloween, and got so into the plastic weapons that we had to temporarily hide them from him. He took good care of the costume and the weapons. It was very cool to see Moose enraptured by something like this, to dive into a ninja character and run around the house and act out his imagination. 

My hunch is that, next Halloween, he'll ditch the superheroes and ninjas for a character from the new Star Wars movie. 

A rite of toddler passage

As Mister Bub is the baby who completes our family, I have been trying to pay close attention to the last "firsts" that he participates in and soaking up the details. Firsts such as first time feeding himself, first time saying "Da-da," first time climbing out of his crib (here we are at 21.5 months, and he thankfully hasn't tried this stunt yet). 

And another first: The first time taking keen interest in the toilet paper roller and seeing how much he can unwind. 

Quick observation: why toilet paper? No, not just as in why do little kids enjoy unrolling it? but also why do we rely on toilet paper, when there are better, more environmentally conscious, sanitary, convenient, cleaner options? 

So enthralled by such a simple thing! Minutes of entertainment, which afford me or Becky minutes to do something fun, like fold laundry in the next room. He didn't snake it down the hall. He didn't cram the commode with t.p. He didn't (the horror!) change the way the t.p. rolls (over, not under). 

But Grouse does like flushing the toilet. He likes watching the water swirl down and disappear. Unlike his older brother, Grouse hasn't (yet) innocently dumped a bunch of toys in it to clean said toys. Look for more bathroom chronicles in the weeks and months ahead!
Doesn't that sound enticing to keep you coming back for updates?! 

Wearing Many Hats

Besides being a full-time stay-at-home mom, Becky wears many other hats. She handles a lot of responsibilities in our church, including being the director of our children's choir for their annual Primary Program a few weeks ago, into which she poured every ounce of energy she has! In addition, there are the all-encompassing, day-in and day-out hats for mom and wife, friend and neighbor. 

Starting this fall, my better half also became a Girl Scout troop leader for Our Dear Goose's troop. They meet bi-weekly and have their first over-nighter later this month. It helps to have one of Becky's good friends, Jessica, be the troop leader. If you look closely, you can see Becky's green vertical Girl Scout troop leader ribbon. 

We've entered a new stage of parenting and family life, with Girl Scouts, soccer practices and games, church responsibilities, school meetings, homework, and being involved parents in general. The days zip by faster than ever before somehow, so for me it's important to step back and chronicle the micro and the day-to-day. 

It's the Great Pumpkin-Filled Carriage, Charlie Brown!

As our youngest, Our Baby Grouse is constantly fighting to share time, space, toys, and attention with his three oldest siblings. But even when it's just him and Mommy, he has competition for personal space. Check out him barely having room to maneuver in this shopping cart last week! Poor dude. 

It's also really sweet to see Grouse completely bewildered as to why we're buying these huge, heavy pumpkins, then taking them home, cutting and jabbing and slicing them open, painting them, and leaving them on our front porch. This is his last year of not really knowing or understanding what's going on with Halloween, even in its most basic form. 

By Halloween 2016, he'll have a better sense of Halloween traditions, do's, and don'ts, such as why we dress up, why kids love it (free candy!), and why Daddy has to carve it in a stone slab that "Daddy promises not to buy Hood Golden Egg Nog before November 1st."  

For now, for this year, let's enjoy his bewilderment and cute curiosity. 

Reverting

Recently, for whatever reason, Our Mighty Moose has shown signs of reverting in age. The first time it occurred, it was cute. See below. This is him squeezing into his baby brother's pajamas at bedtime. I think the second photo deftly illustrates that, by this point when I snapped the second photo, the novelty of being in smaller PJ's had already worn off! 

But on this past Thursday evening, Moose's regression went a few steps further. At bedtime, he insisted on wearing one of his brother's diapers. He jokingly begged for a binky. And he squeezed into an even tighter-fitting pair of Grouse's pajamas. 

It was all fun and games, and we went along with it. When I warned Moose that a binky at his age would ruin his teeth, he quickly handed the binky back to me. Becky and I were fine with humoring Moose for a bit, but we didn't want this to set a trend. Then, before midnight, Moose bounded into our bedroom and begged us to take off the size-4 diaper. Moose hasn't slept with a diaper at night in about a year. I helped him to the bathroom and he went back to bed, sans diaper. But he wanted to keep his brother's pajamas on, which was fine.

So, 2 out of 3 ain't bad!   

Cousins

Our kids only have 1 cousin on the East Coast, but that one cousin is almost perfectly-suited age-wise for Our Little Mouse. Cousin S. is about 6 weeks older than Mouse. We see Timo's parents and Cousin S. quite a bit, and our girls love having sleep-overs at their Nana and Bumpa's house, in part because Cousin S. lives right next-door to Nana and Bumpa. 

It is interesting to see how the dynamic of three girls has shifted over time. For a good number of years, Cousin S. would "play up" with Goose, our oldest. This left our Mouse off by herself a lot, which caused some sadness. Nowadays, Cousin S. and Mouse are a tag-team and they don't feel the need to "play up" with their big sister/big cousin Goose, so she is the one who now feels excluded. 

There's no easy remedy to this, aside from near-constant time-outs, warnings that "If you girls don't behave, we're heading home right now!" and the so-easy-to-enforce rule that "We won't ever do a sleep-over again if you all can't get along." 

(Like, what parent would ever level such limp-wrist threats?). 

But then there are moments like this, when all three are in perfect harmony and having a great girl-time event, like getting their nails painted:

  

We've become a suburban soccer family

Yes, it finally has happened in Chez TimBeck6: We have become a suburban soccer family. We held off on joining organized sports for a couple years for various reasons, but this fall, both Mouse and Goose got on the ridiculously competitive rosters for our town's soccer teams. 

Competitive in the sense that a parent has to register her/his child on the first game day of fall for the following spring season, and do the same in spring for the fall 2016 season! Seriously, who can plan that far in advance? 

But registered they were, and then we looked at our family calendar and realized, "Hey, three separate nights of 60-minute practices each, plus two Saturday games at different times and sometimes in different cities isn't too over- scheduled. Tim, sign up to be a coach, too!" 

So Goose is on a traveling U-10 team, for which I am one of two coaches, and Mouse is on an in-town-only U-8 team, for which I've been a late-addition assistant coach twice. I'm really enjoying the coaching aspect and seeing the game from a different angle. I've been growing to love soccer more over the last few years anyhow. Hard to beat what is typically a set 90-minute, fast-paced game with no commercials, compared to U.S. sports.  

With the season winding down, I can honestly say that it hasn't been nearly as frantic as we thought it would be when practices started in late August. 

Our girls are both enjoying it, one more than the other. What they've really loved is the chance to make new friends and further solidify existing friendships. Goose has primarily played halfback (which we call "runner") and fullback (which we call "stopper). 

Mouse has primarily been the goalie and stopper on her team, though she'd like to play halfback more. Mouse has become a bit more aggressive the last few weeks, charging after the ball or simply just staying with in. In the past, when a bigger, taller girl came her way, Mouse would sort of step aside. 

It's really fun seeing the differences in competition levels between U-8 and U-10. In U-8, kids can get away with chasing their own shadow on the field or waving to their parent on the sideline. In U-10, me and the other coach were going a little nutty in yesterday's game from the sidelines when one of our own players (the fullback) stopped in the middle of the field to tie both of her shoes, when the ball was in the fullback zone.  

And yes: Our Little Mouse, Our Dear Goose, and Dear Old Dad signed up for Spring 2016!

"Brothers don't shake hands"

...brothers gotta hug! 

They don't always get along swimmingly, but they are getting to be buddies more. Baby Grouse is able to keep his attention longer on Moose and his toys and games, so they do interact a lot. But Moose is still much too strong and too impatient to really share his most favorite toys with his little brother. There is a lot of yanking stuff out of Grouse's chubby little hands, some quick dashes in the backyard to get away from the little one who can't run as fast, and other manifestations of sibling rivalry. But they do have their cute moments, too.

Mouse's 7th Birthday

Our Little Mouse recently turned 7 years old. In keeping with her free-spirit, keep-us-on-our-toes personality, when asked what she wanted as a birthday gift, Mouse replied, "Crutches." Yes, crutches. Thanks to Amazon, her wish came true. 

Here she is, opening the big cardboard box on her birthday night. She also got smaller gifts of two rolls of Ace bandages and a kid's sling. Thankfully, due to her aversion for aggressive physical play (she isn't one for getting in the scrum on the soccer pitch, for example), Mouse doesn't present many opportunities for her to really need those (yet).  

When the rains come

Hat-tip to an under-appreciated Beatles song.

A few weeks ago, we had a torrential downpour one day, which was long overdue after a summer of very little rain. Somehow, all of that history-making snowfall of the winter 2015 didn't matter much to New England's overall precipitation needs?! Anyhow, three of our 4 kids took great advantage of the massive puddles in our yard:

Check out Baby Grouse in the yellow t-shirt. He's getting in on the big kids' ways of flashing cool signs instead of just waving at the camera!

Only 54 more days...

Is it possible for a 21-month-old to age enough over the next 8 weeks so that I can bring all of my 4 kids to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Christmastime?

Stumped!

On Monday evening, after Family Home Evening, Goose and I sat down at our kitchen island to focus on her homework. Such an over-achiever: She was determined to do her entire week's homework right then and there. And she did! I think she was riding a high of having submitted, late the previous week, her candidacy to serve on her elementary school's Student Activities Council! 

It was really cool and very fun to have this one-on-one time with Goose. She is now in third grade. 

As we tried to complete her last assignment, we stumbled upon this jumbled-up word, #7:

We had breezed through the previous 6 word jumbles, each one of which, when unscrambled correctly, would reveal Goose's assignment word for the week. So, #6 above is divide, and #8 above is grade, and #9 above is iron. Those were easy! But #7? We looked at it longer than any of her other words. Sure, she could have cheated and simply flipped to the correct assignment words chart at the end of her homework packet, but we--and I emphasize Goose--stuck to it.

It took us about a minute--about 30 to 45 seconds longer than her other assignment words. But Goose, all on her own, got it correct. I could see the light go off in her mind. It was very cool! She guessed the word and jumped up in her chair. I loved being there with Goose in this moment. 

Highlight. 

Lids

You wear it well, Baby Grouse!

Salem, MA, September 21st, 2015

And yeah, he is 20 months old and absolutely wedded to his binky, even in daytime. He also loves wearing Crocs. The pair above is actually his older brother's pair. Grouse has three pairs to choose from at Chez TimBeck6. Lucky dude!

Go ahead, Grouse...

...lick the fountain water.

Two days after Becky's birthday, we celebrated my Aunt Peggy's Boston visit by me taking the day off and hitting my parents' homestead with Becky and our kids. School was in closed in our town because it was Yom Kippur. My Aunt Peggy was last in town about seven years ago, so we wanted to make sure that we all got time together and for our kids to meet their great-aunt. In the afternoon, we took a walk around the beautiful college campus where my Dad ("Bumpa" to his grandkids) works. 

Our kids spied these knee-high-on-an-adult water fountains outside the student center. It was irresistible: They had to touch and taste and splash the water. However, Our Baby Grouse was understandably tentative, at first. He walked all around the slabs as water bubbled up and over the sides. He'd step toward one, feel a splash on his arms, and race back to safety. Grouse finally summoned the courage once he saw me run my hands through the bubbling, cascading, cool water.

...and instead of touching it, he crouched down, craned his neck forward, and licked it!

That's my boy! 

I just hope that this college's admissions staff don't come across Grouse's photo in about 18 years and, scholarly achievement aside, use the above photo against him!

Fire Brigade

Becky's birthday was September 21st (not too late to get your belated wishes in, folks!). I took the afternoon off, and as luck would have it, her good friend Emily and Emily's family was in town from Pennsylvania. The 10 of us met in Salem for the blustery afternoon. We walked through the historic graveyard memorial for the people executed for being "witches," spent time on the piers, and caught up on life. 

I really like Salem, except at Halloween, when it is inundated with Halloween freaks. 

Anyhow, we had dinner at Engine House Pizza, a neat little pizza joint near the Maritime Historical Park. Between the two dads and six kids, we went through three large pizzas. One of Emily's kids, who reportedly only ever eats one big slice at a sitting, ate three slices. Our kids had the run of the place, which aside from us was pretty empty--not a good sign for the restaurant, but good for us and good for the people who didn't eat there and thus were spared the cacophony of chaos that six kids 8 and under can create.

But in their funniest moments, our kids found real-life firefighter helmets and helped themselves. Once their pizza dinner was finally over, they put on a helmet display and had a great time pretending to be firefighters:

We adults looked at the huddle of kids sitting in a booth behind us and laughingly said, "They're having their post-inferno de-brief!" below:

Someone is excited...

He asks, every day and night, for a Star Wars story. He gets impatient, frustrated, and, on occasion, downright belligerent with me when I don't know the full details of an obscure Star Wars character that we read about in a book together. My old, much-cherished Star Wars action figures are now some of his much-cherished collectibles. I even bought several new comic books about Star Wars, the first comic books I've purchased since I was 15 years old (those comic books were also about Star Wars). 

Some of my most favorite moments over the last year have been me either recounting scenes from one of the original 6 movies, or--better yet--making up Star Wars stories as I kneel, sit, or lay next to his bed at bedtime. 

A whole new world of Star Wars excitement, with new characters and ships and weapons, dawns on December 18th this year. That's just 81 days from today. 

But who is counting?! I can still recall my jaw dropping open when I read the news on October 30, 2012 that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm and would be making new Star Wars movies. Go ahead, Lucas and Disney: Just take every spare dime I have.   

What a Year for Music

I am, again, taking a detour from posting about our family happenings. The subject of music has been on my mind. Life at the office has been unbelievably fast-paced lately, and while changes for the better are coming, I have tried to keep sane and take a momentary breather while meeting deadlines to listen to music. 

My good friend (and unfortunately very infrequent blogging partner) Randi once claimed that I was born in the wrong generation, at least when it comes to music. I agree 100%. Give me the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Dylan, the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, and classic rock any time over what pop music has morphed into over the last 25 years. 

With that as background, I made a very interesting (to me, at least) discovery that led me to proclaim that the year 1965 was the best year, for my music tastes, of any single year in the history of modern music. 

As it is the 50th anniversary of that year and these songs, I think a blog post is in order!

But first:

I tip my hat to other fantastic years of songs, particularly the years 1982 through 1985, which saw 1999, Centerfold, Come on Eileen, Hungry Like the Wolf, Jack and Diane, Billie Jean, Burning Down the House, I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues, New Year's Day, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Pink Houses, Radio Free Europe, Red Red Wine, Rio, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Wrapped Around Your Finger, The Boys of Summer, It's My Life, New Moon on Monday, Obsession, The Reflex, Shout, Sister Christian, Valotte, When Doves Cry, to name a few. 

Phew! That's ~25 of the best songs of the entire 1980s, songs that most anyone alive back then would still know and songs that kids today have probably heard.


I'm going to prove my 1965-as-gold-standard thesis in two ways: first, by citing the litany of very good songs that were released in 1965; and second, by ranking my top 10 favorites from that milestone year. First, the very good but not my favorite songs from 1965:

1. As Tears Go By, the Rolling Stones (an uncharacteristic mood-changer from the majority of their classic hits).
2. Barbara Ann, the Beach Boys.
3. Come a Little Bit Closer, Jay and the Americans.
4. Downtown, Petula Clark.
5. Early Morning Rain, Peter Paul and Mary.
6. Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire (friends with the Mamas and the Papas).
7. Five o'Clock World, the Vogues.
8. For Your Love, the Yardbirds (one of Eric Clapton's bands).
9. Game of Love, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.
10. Hang on Sloopy, the McCoys.
11. Help! the Beatles.
12. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), the Four Tops.
13. I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher.
14. I'll Never Find Another You, the Seekers.
15. I'm Looking Through You, the Beatles.
16. In the Midnight Hour, Wilson Pickett. That saxophone solo is powerful!
17. It Ain't Me Babe, the Turtles (who, like the Byrds, took a Bob Dylan original and made it more palatable for the masses).
18. Just a Little, the Beau Brummels.
19.   Maggie's Farm, Bob Dylan.
20. My Love, Petula Clark (one of the perkiest pop songs ever, and quite a single great year for her, with numerous hits on both sides of the Atlantic).
21. Nowhere to Run, Martha and the Vandellas.
22. Stop! In the Name of Love, the Supremes.
23. We Can Work It Out, the Beatles.
24. Yesterday, the Beatles (though one can make the case that this was pretty much Paul McCartney's first solo single).
25. You Were On My Mind, the We Five.
26. You're the One, the Vogues.
27. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, the Beatles.

That's a very impressive line-up of classic songs, many of which by themselves can serve as a musical backdrop or a mental record-player when someone does a TV special about the '60s, the Vietnam War, Motown, the British Invasion, whatever.

Then, there are these cuts-above-the-rest songs, all from 1965. You will notice a lot of repeat appearances by the same artists. They were each simply at the top of their game in 1965:

11. Go Where You Wanna Go, the Mamas and the Papas. The cascade of strings at the intro is haunting and all-too-brief (lasting just 6 seconds). It makes me wish this group had put aside their personal differences and stayed together longer than a handful of years. Their harmonies are out of this world, their mix of folk sounds and pop was intoxicating, and they could have done so much more as a group than as solo artists.


10. The Times They are a-Changin', Bob Dylan. "Come gather 'round people, where ever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown. And accept it that soon, you'll be drenched to the bone." Those opening lines captured the tension, turmoil, and radical transitions in American society in the mid-1960s as no other writer, singer, or poet could. 

9. In My Life, the Beatles. A melancholic, sweet autobiographical song by John Lennon. It's blending of folk and baroque instruments makes this one of my favorites, ever. Particular nod to the bridge starting at 1:41 in the song, which producer George Martin created by having the Beatles perform on instruments and then speed up and slow down the recording, then blending it together.

8. Turn! Turn! Turn! the Byrds. Arguably the song of a generation, a decade, a transcendant mood. It's simply beautiful.


7. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), the Beatles. George Harrison's work on the sitar is lights-out. What a masterpiece, a song about jilted lovers straight from Lennon's personal extra-marital affairs at the time. 



6. Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan. Another strong candidate for "song that describes a generation," in my book. And unlike so many other Dylan songs that were covered by other artists and sounded better (to my ears, at least), I can't imagine anyone doing justice to a cover of this phenomenal single. Not bad for a song that Dylan often described as having originated from "20 pages of vomit"!  

5. Mr. Tambourine Man, the Byrds. Good rock music fans will note that this is the third Bob Dylan-penned song on the list (#5, #6, and #10). This song reminds me of driving around in my Dad's old brown station wagon in the 1980s, listening to Oldies 103.3 out of Boston. My Dad exposed me to "oldies" music way before I was able to really appreciate it, but this song and "Mrs. Robinson" were ones that I latched on to, even in my pre-teen years. It is the Byrds' first-ever single, one of the strongest examples of folk-rock music, and a determined shove back from American shores against all of the waves of the British Invasion of the previous 12 months. "In the jingle-jangle mornin' I'll come following you" is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. 



4. California Dreamin', the Mamas and the Papas. What a hypnotic ode to wanderlust. Why hasn't the Golden State made this its official state song?! The flute solo is intoxicating though too brief. The call-and-repeat ("All the leaves are brown" with the Mamas singing "all the leaves are brown" in a stilted delivery) sticks in your mind, even with just one listen. Songwriting at its near-perfect best. Hard to believe that now, Michelle Phillips is the sole surviving member of this phenomenal foursome.   



3. The Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel. I love the slow guitar jangle dancing into the opening verse of this rock-tinged re-make of the duo's previous version of "Silence." The duo's vocals range from soft, clean, and crisp to, at the end, soaring, pleading, and impassioned, a vocal tour de force that gives oomph to what could easily be otherwise regarded as pretentious. But what an opening line: "Hello darkness my old friend."



2. The Tracks of My Tears, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It's a travesty that this wonderful track didn't crack the Billboard top 10. But who really cares now? The song was introduced to a younger generation in the late 1980s due to it being featured in a prominent scene in Oliver Stone's "Platoon." It's a sensational recording, the simplicity of the lyrics belied by the raw emotional power of Smokey Robinson's passionate delivery. I love his ad- libbed lines in the chorus as the Miracles sing "So take a good look at my face," and he softly adds in "ah-ha," "yeah, just look closer," etc. 



1. Ticket to Ride, the Beatles. My favorite Beatles song of all time. A mournful, folk rock tune about the one that got away, it features strong drumming from Ringo and terrific lyrics that get to the heart of Lennon's despair over "the girl that's driving me mad." Harrison's guitar work on the classic intro is stunning and pulls you right in. I will never get sick of listening to this song.   



So there they are: the thesis and examples for why 1965 was the best year ever in the history of rock 'n roll. And sure, my top list is dominated by three acts (the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Mamas and the Papas), but that's just a testament to how each musician or group was firing on all cylinders that one year. And while most of these acts would go on to have other memorable, great songs, and in some cases have long careers (others, like the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas would break up within 5 years), the fact remains to me that they were at their prime in this single year, all of them individually contributing to a masterful collection of incredible songs.