Thursday, July 14, 2005

Sam Turns 8

Today is my son Sam's birthday. He's 8 years old now. We're going to see Willy Wonka tomorrow to celebrate. I was disappointed to hear Gene Wilder diss the new version of it. What's it to him? Who do you think has fancier hair, Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp? Anyway, Sam always chooses to do something with us, his family, instead of having a big party with friends. This is nice and it's usually what I wanted to do as a kid too. For my tenth birthday all I wanted to do was see Rocky III which had just come out. My step-dad had just gotten a vcr and he initially insisted that I have a video party in order to make use of this new-fangled technology. I was crushed, but don't worry. I did get to see Rocky III for my birthday and have forgiven my step-dad, for that.

I bought myself a Rocky III poster. I used to go to the mall and flip through those poster holders at stores like Hallmark looking at cool stuff. Things are so different for me now--now I have the internet. My little sister Carly ripped that poster down one day. That was hard to forgive, but I did. Incidentally, Carly is currently enjoying two weeks on the Oregon coast. Oh dear--sorry, I was just thinking to myself that I hope she remembered to pack her prescription deodorant.

So anyway, for his birthday Sam wanted scriptures, a laptop, various Star Wars paraphernalia, and two rats. At the pet store Sam read a sign on a cage (of well-endowed male rats) that rats are best for 8 year olds--and do best with a playmate. Huh. Interesting. What's that age you learn to read well enough by to read smallish print on animal cages? Oh, right-right-right. 8. So he's been talking about how he's best-suited to a pet rat. . .make that two rats. But, with all due respect to the ratpeople of the world (and you know who you are), that ain't gonna happen. Bald tails and "musky" secretions are not my style. What is my style, you may ask? Don't patronize me.

Sweet, sensitive Sam--He looks pretty much the same but, I don't know, somehow he seems more accountable.



It really makes you think. And ponder. I wonder how my mom felt when I turned 8. Perhaps we'll never know.

21 comments:

  1. Yes we know who we are and, well. . . just put Sam on the phone will ya'? We'll give him some, um . . . (I was going to say amunition but what with times being what they are, and with all that fancy Star Wars stuff he's got plenty) let's say. . . pointers on how to get moms to buy cool pets for kids. For one thing boy rats are awful! Girl rats are smarter, not smelly or greasy, without certain obvious parts and super fun--compared to say, ferrets? -- I say go for it!
    And do send our love to the Birthday Boy.
    . . . but I can't wait until I'm 8 for then I'll be baptized you'll see . . .

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  2. Anonymous2:27 PM

    I went with rats over mice or hamster for my kids because they're not nocturnal, they're clean, and they don't bite.

    Our rats are starting to die now--only one out of three left. I think I'm gonna take the plunge and get a dog.

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  3. I had a rat once for about an hour. A school teacher didn't know what to do with it at the end of of the school year and no one else would take it so I said I would. I was so grossed out by the hairless tail that I couldn't stand to look at it. I gave it to the garbageman's son who was thrilled. Don't give in...The pics of Sam with his scriptures and Darth Vader mask are priceless. (Is this a Mastercard commercial?)

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  4. Great picture of Sam. Great picture of your Mom. I wish we'd known about the rat thing, we could have had great fun buying him a couple, though Fifi would probably have never come to visit afterward. Is it too late?

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  5. Oops! that comment sounded like I don't want Fifi to visit you. Not what I intended.

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  6. I'm so glad Paige doesn't want a rat...or ratS for her 8th birthday next month. There will be no reading of pet cages until MUCH later in life. No good can come of it.

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  7. Remind me when I see you to share a story that this post reminded me of that I shouldn't publish online.

    Did you LOVE Willie Wonka? I did! Great pics.

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  8. Put the helmet on the speaker while Anakin talks in the movie, and see what his voice sounds like, compare with Anakin in Episode III to Anakin in VI. And after you have fulfilled my first command, buy Sam and Maggie each a rat. Wait a while for Ben, he needs some time yet.

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  9. "Accountable"... That is hilarious! Somehow I can tell there is a very sweet 8-year-old under the Darth Vader mask. Maybe it's the scriptures...

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  10. Great GREAT post... happy birthday to my favorite Sam ever!

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  11. Gene DEFINITELY has fancier hair than "I-have-daddy-issues" Johnny.

    I think that Sam is the luckiest boy in the whole entire world. No, seriously...I don't think I have EVER seen such cool presents.

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  12. Miles and Owen would love to get their hands on that cool Star Wars stuff. Teach me how to get your kids to choose going to a movie with their family over a friends party. . . that's my dream.

    As for pets: mice don't do anything. My brother had a rat, Floyd (as in Pink) for years who became part of the family. He was very tame--he let him run loose in his room he'd never run away, and he'd crawl from his pocket to the top of his head while he was on the computer. . . okay, it was kinda gross, but my point is the rat was way cooler than the mice.

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  13. Rats are yucky. I ran from some the other day.

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  14. You should. It sounds like everyone has a great rat story. Blog away.

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  15. My 4-year old son had been saving his allowance for over a year so he could buy a seahorse. We went to the Beane Museum the other day and in the gift shop he found some dried, dehydrated seahorse skeletal something for 50 cents and went crazy over it. We splurged on not only the dehydrated seahorse but I bought him a glass tube to put it in. As we climbed in the car with him clutching his 50 cent prize, I heard him sigh in the backseat with the comment, "WOW. I finally got my seahorse." I felt stunned that it had all been so easy.

    I wouldn't recommend a dehydrated rat skeleton. Just so you know...

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  16. Luke, that's the finest comment to awkwardly end a post that I've ever seen.

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  17. I’m didn’t mean to prematurely end a post or anything, uh… I mean… uh… Decrepit Monkey Skeleton!

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  18. Thanks to you good folks who brought this post to an end. I like closure. I guess I can move on to a new post now.

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  19. Anonymous9:16 PM

    hmmm...I have a rat story too and it involves a fifth of vodka. I should blog about that.

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  20. oops..that last one was me...sorry

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  21. I guess I deserve the fallacious prescrition deo comment on account of the Rocky III poster. It must have been the equivalent of when Amy threw Jo's manuscript in the fire in Little Women. Come on, you KNOW you think that you are Jo and I am Amy. PS sorry about the poster.

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