Surf's Up

Today I'm all sunshine and mania. In other words the usual me. Good to be back. This weekend was so awesome it's hard to put into words to convey the awesomeness. Really all I did was spend time with Mike and HR (with a side trip to watch my nephew kick butt in basketball), but that was enough in itself. We passed Mike's birthday simply but happily (once he wrapped up his work and million hours of snow shoveling), taking in some stellar barbecue, eating ice cream while watching "The Muppet Movie" for our inaugural Family Movie Night (more on this selection in a bit) and just having some solid grown-up hang out time after HR's bedtime. I didn't even fall asleep on the couch at 10 o'clock which, believe me, was a concerted effort - not because I didn't want to be up and chilling, just because these day my body has an automatic shut-off switch. It wasn't Mexico, but I think Mikey was OK with it. We've also reached the stage where HR is becoming reliably amusing company. He's developing a sense of humor, and getting so smart and cheeky and curious. He's always been a play-it-safe guy for a toddler, but he's starting to branch out a bit, testing us, and I dig it right now because it shows some spirit. I understand if he grows to be an obedient do-bee like I always was, you can't help how you're wired, but I will always foster a questioning streak in him, a sense of real engagement with the world, that makes it all mean something. Remind me I said that when he's a teenager.

I've also just been feeling so good - I haven't had a serious, sustained headache in over a week, nothing since I had the MRI which makes me think, hmm, how much of the pain was brought on by my own internal freakout? Time will tell, but it makes a world of difference when you feel right in your body and mind, compounded with the added relief of being assured that nothing is glaringly wrong. Like I need to say it, but this is something not to be taken for granted times a thousand.

Re: "The Muppet Movie," the original one from 1979- this is a favorite of the grown-ups in the house, and we were psyched for HR to be old enough to show interest. As expected he was over watching it after the first half hour, but he's talked about it since and has requested to see it again, so that's cool. For Mike and me it was tinged with sadness because we realized that everyone involved with it--mostly everyone--is dead. No more Jim Henson. Dom DeLuise. Milton Berle. Richard Pryor. Madeline Kahn. Telly Savalas. Richard Hunt. Jerry Nelson. I'll stop there. Our childhood is so long, long gone. But we've got today. And today is wonderful.

This is the first out of his three daylight savings' times on this earth that HR has been sleeping through the night with any consistency, hence the only year I would be able to tell if it affected him. So far, we cool. Now to perform a spell to ward off any delayed reactions.

A weekend highlight: accidentally teaching my child this song by singing it in his presence. You really haven't lived until you've heard a nearly three-year-old sing the lyrics, "Find my baby, gonna find her now, she looks like Patti Smith, SURFING COW!"