So Cool

Last night, as on many nights, Joe-Henry and I had some iPhone time together. He has my old phone (which was Charley's old phone), and I had my phone, and he played one of his thousand games, and I played Bejeweled Blitz because yes, Mr. & Mrs. Internet America I'm an addict. In the old days, everyone gathered in front of the radio. This is our radio.

Anyway, instead of Madden 10, or Jelly Car, or the horrible and entirely inappropriate New York Nights (another post on it's own, for now I'll tell you that the age guidelines are WRONG), he played me a concert on RealPianopro. It was soothing and beautiful, and even though I have to BEG him to practice piano for reals, he enjoyed making music. Relaxing, creating, entertaining his mom.

I give myself a hard time about not being better at a whole laundry list of things. I don't engage him enough in this or that, I'm not more positive in the way I try to guide him to do things on his own. Don't get me wrong - I'm not laying awake at night beating myself up for this. I think EVERY parent does this to a certain degree. And since I"m in such good company, I sleep pretty soundly most of the time, thankyouverymuch.

He's discovering great music every day too - through games. The last song we downloaded was Little Eva's The Locomotion. He has great taste in music, and I love hearing him sing along. We give him coupons to be turned in for things he wants, and he can spend them any way he wants, but when they're gone, he has to wait until the next time he gets coupons. (Of course, we can "gift" him if we want.)

As we both started to feel tired, he opened up Bloom. I'd seen it once before, Charley had shown it to me a long time ago. But last night was an epiphany. Created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers, it's an ambient, interactive music box. It's visually simple but hypnotically beautiful, and sooooooo relaxing. I think it should be a required app if you have trouble sleeping or are under stress. I begged him for a turn, told him to close his eyes and he was asleep within two minutes.

I HATE paying for apps, but this one? Completely worth the 3.99. I think I'll even be able to use it at work. I'm excited to see what the students I work with think of it.

The Forecast for Today

I am a technical nincompoop. So it's a good thing that I'm married to a man who loves nothing more than to curl up with a frosty O'Douls and read manuals. For fun. I have been trying for a couple weeks to make it past page two of my new camera manual, and let me say, Nikon needs to take into account that some of their customers need more help than others, and they could at least put in some kind of narrative, for the love of Mike.

Anyhoo, all this to say, yesterday JH and I went to Costco, where I was NOT going to buy him anything, because all he does is get stuff that he doesn't use and it fills up our house and it overflows until I go "AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHKKKKKK!" and stomp around throwing stuff in giant garbage bags to haul to Goodwill to be appreciated by children who have nothing but rocks to play with for fun. Wow. I digress yet again. I'm getting really good at this....

SO, we're taking a short cut through Costco from the batteries to the Ranch Dressing, when I see these giant maps. I had been thinking about getting him some big maps for his giant yellow wall above his bed, because a) I want to absorb some geographical knowledge before he starts school so that I'm not called into the principal's office and asked to please desist from helping him with his homework ever again, and b) maps are pretty. So I stop to look at the maps, and JH looks up at me from the cart with a pleading look in his eyes, and I realize I forgot to put on my face of steel, so the maps go into the cart. I rationalized it by saying it's not a toy. It's not, and it looks great on his giant yellow wall. Dammit.

He was so excited about his map, oh sweet GEEKDOM, he was excited! Because do you know what he wanted to do more than anything when we got home? See how far it is from Vancouver to Grandmas? Find out where China is, where they make all those child-killing toys? NO! He wants to do the WEATHER! So I put the map up above his bed, and last night after dinner and a walk, we got the complete forecast. And because I'm a brilliant multi-tasker, I thought, "I'll tape this and upload it for my blog, so that I won't have to write anything, because me no have words." I did, and the forecast is very HOT. It's a scorcher in Russia and Phoenix, but mild throughout the rest of the world, except for someplace called "Binky" near the Marshall Islands, where it's very warm and very tiny and they give out dirty looks if you giggle silently at thier name.

OH, and the reason I started this blog saying that I am a technical nincompoop? Because, while I managed to tape it, I cannot get it uploaded to the internet-o-sphere. I've tried and tried, and in fact in the time I've taken to write this, I've been having a race on my computer between Safari & Firefox to see who will upload it the fastest. Answer: they both are taking too long.

So you are subjected to this post instead.

Check back later to see if I get it up. (Yeah, that's what HE said)

Or to see if I have thrown my laptop out the window.

Edit: The Genius woke up and talked me through my idiocy. Wooohoooo! My laptop, my window and my sanity are safe!

An Amazing Age

I started my day by reading a great post at my pal Suttonhoo's blog about The Economist article that says internet search sites are taking over porn sites in popularity. I've been thinking about the fact that my son knows that "Google" can be a noun or a verb. The other night after reading a book that we love called Buddy Booby's Birthmark, we Googled "red-billed booby" & "Galapagos tortoise" and he was able to see more pictures, and learn more about their habitat.

And this afternoon, I checked my email and noted that in the slew of email I get from the k-t support group that there was a live webcast of a vascular anomalies clinic from Boston Children's Hospital, and all I had to do was click on the link to watch these incredible doctors, some of the top doctors in the country, going over cases of children from all over the country with rare vascular disorders. The term Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome tripped off their tongues like they talked about it all day, instead of wondering how to pronounce it. I couldn't help but be fall on my knees grateful for this wondrous technology that is making this world smaller, more accessible, so that my son, by the time he is old enough to start making his doctor's appointments, will be able to say "here are a few websites that will give you the information you need", or "you can check out the webcast", or even just find others like himself.

Support, contact, knowledge. What an amazing age we live in.