About A Boy

Six hours old and already the sunshiniest smile!

I post about my kids a lot. I know this. You might be sick of it. Well.....screw off and get your own blog then! My little skateboarding, cross-dressing (Gender Schmender), foul-mouthed (The F@*king Mouths on These Kids!), tantrum thrower (Two Year Olds Are Assholes) is turning 3 soon and I'm going to blog about him. Mostly, because he is awesome and much cooler than most grown people I know.
     I love my kids equally and enormously. I gain wild amounts of entertainment from them both. My boy just has a little more spotlight on him at the moment because he is younger and needs more help with things and does crazier crap it would seem. My daughter has many flights of fancy but my son has singular and focused passions. He loves two things above all: music and skateboarding. He will play guitar and skateboard for hours. Wants to watch only those two things on tv or play with toys associated with them. A cooler almost three year old I have yet to meet!

      I have been planning the big birthday party for a while now.....perhaps too long. I have planned his ideal party at an indoor skatepark complete with demos from skaters and lessons for the kids. A fellow derby girl, Becky (aka Cold <3ed Cupcake) is making a skateboard cake in chocolate to end ALL cakes! Even the goodie bags will be amazing. I can't wait to blog post-party and report how it all goes! In the meantime, here's a video of the boy boarding down a neighbor's driveway. I love that he faceplants immediately in this one. Here's to the boy! I can't wait to celebrate his tiny amount he's lived and his gigantic impact on my life!

Lake Okoboji

I am leaving to go on my first vacation in three years tomorrow. I am so excited, I can feel the electric anticipation buzzing through my skin. I am going on a road trip with my brother without any children. Just the two of us. It has been SO many years since we have done this. I feel like a kid again!
I used to go up to Lake Okoboji every summer from the time I was a baby. My father has had a restaurant there since I was about seven years old. I have only been up once in 6 years and it has left a longing in me. This lake is so beautiful and calm and the embodiment of everything I have ever loved about summer. An old amusement park with a wooden roller coaster, salt water taffy and ice cream stands, paddle boats, live music, beaches, and  boat rides. I even wrote an ode to the lake. I will post it here, but bear in mind, I wrote this when I was about fourteen. I was walking around late at night watching the moon reflect off the water.

Ode to Okoboji

Your calm, cool shores enthrall me,
 Your glistening tips will stall me,
Your silvery shine
Is a sure-fire sign
That your silent, still waves will call me.

I walk on the dock with care,
Not to fall in the cool water's lair,
With a look to the beach
My spirit will reach
I return to the frigid night air.

I pull my sweater up tight,
And turn my back on the night,
I relax with a sigh
As I look to the sky
For on Earth, there in no one in sight.