Last New Year's Eve I remember just going to our next door neighbor's house to watch a movie while 2-month-old baby Jonas slept on the floor of their living room.
This year, those neighbors moved somewhere else and have a 4 month old baby of their own. Jonas is 1 year and 2 months old. We also managed to attend 3 parties this year. Two of them were parties thrown by our students, and the third was hosted by or landlady in our front yard. That was kind of a drag because their friends stayed over until really late smoking and playing poker right outside Jonas' bedroom window. The bedroom smelled like smoke and he woke up at 11pm (after going to bed around 9) and couldn't go back to sleep until after 1. The party hadn't ended yet but we finally asked them to move their poker game closer to their own house so Jonas could sleep, and thankfully they obliged. It kind of screwed up our day today though. Jonas took a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day. I hope we are back on track tonight. I am trying to remain optimistic about 2006 but I can't say we are off to the best start.
On a totally different note, I have the DVD "Singin' In The Rain" and I noticed that Jonas really enjoyed watching the song and dance parts of it. So, I went out and bought a bunch of Shirley Temple movies (they are like $2.50 each here so I went a little crazy). He LOVES the tap dancing scenes. If he wanders off to play, when he hears the tap dancing he will run back and watch until the dance is over. I really do see alot of my brother's personality in him. My brother has always been into music and entertaining. He used to dress up in costumes as a kid and walk around the house as a magician (in a top hat and cape) or an army man, or a native american, or a scuba diver, or a cowboy, or an F.B.I agent (in a suit coat)...I can't even remember all of his creative costumes.
That brings me to another train of thought...my brother has been in alot of different bands over the years, and right now he is in one called Wild Sweet Orange. They are heavily influenced by Bright Eyes. I was on the phone with my dad on New Years Eve and dad had gone to see them play recently. He told me all the songs were about how crappy their childhoods were, and they were all depressing and woe-is-me. I know the guy who wrote the songs pretty well, I have known him since he was 10. I kind of think he had a pretty good childhood. His parents got divorced, but he had everything he needed, and alot of what he wanted. He has this one song about how parents always say "blah blah blah blah" and parents "pour soured milk down their children's throats"...
As a parent, let me tell you, my child can't talk, but this is way harder than it looks.
I guess when that song writer kid is a parent, he will be saying "blah blah blah blah" along with the rest of us.
I know it is in style to write depressing songs, but it makes me feel bad for the kid's mom. I know she did the best that she could. And she goes to alot of his shows. I felt awkward one time when I was at a show standing beside her and her son is on stage singing about "a whore in my daddy's bed" (his dad's girlfriend).
I hope my brother can use his musical talent for something besides playing songs that depress people and cause people with perfectly decent childhoods to overanaylize all of their parents mistakes and feel sorry for themselves.

Sunday, Jan. 01, 2006 at 5:42 PM