Louisiana Trip Wrap-Up

On Saturday we drove down to Natchitoches for my high school reunion. It's a beautiful town - Steel Magnolias was set and filmed there. (They called it by a different name in the movie.) The town has grown some since I was there, mostly the area around the university. Our high school has added a beautiful new building and made some renovations to the ones we had. It was graduation weekend and alumni weekend so there were a lot of people around. The family event that afternoon was a crawfish boil. Alex didn't want to eat them, but he did ask one of my classmates if he could sit and watch her peel and eat them. He was fascinated by the process, but not enough to eat crawfish. One of my other classmate's daughters (who is fearless, apparently) led the rest of the kids outside to the caterers' trailer to see if they had any live crawfish to inspect. They had a whole bag. She showed one off. This is as close to one as Art would get. He did better than another girl - she ran back inside screaming.


We went downtown to do a little sightseeing and shopping. Alex was on the lookout for postcards to send his classmates. He picked out one with an alligator on it that said "Louisiana Yard Dog." I'm sure they were impressed. We didn't last too long downtown. The heat index was 102 degrees. After getting some ice cream to cool off, we headed inside.

Mimi and Paw were nice enough to meet us at the school and collect Alex so that Art and I could go to the LSMSA Prom Revisited - our official reunion gathering. The Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts (LSMSA) is located on the campus of Northwestern State University. Our prom 20 years ago was at the university union's ballroom, and we were in the same space again. (With a photographer, even.) We had a very nice time. We ate some not-yet-oil-tainted seafood, talked with a lot of people we hadn't seen in 10 years and then had a nice presentation. Some of my classmates who couldn't make it to the reunion sent pictures or videos that they played for us all. The school was nice enough to put our class video and several other clips from our school years onto DVDs for all of us. I haven't had a chance to go through the whole thing but at least now I can get rid of the old VHS tapes I have.

Alex had to visit next door before we left. Aunt Mona was hard at work in her yard when he and Mimi rode over in the golf cart. Alex drove a little but no one has forgotten the tree crashing incident of June 2009. As he admits, he does not have a driver's license yet. Before we left we promised that we wouldn't wait an entire year before we came back next time.

Here's Alex surveying the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, MS. It was awfully high when we went through. We got to see several barges and a tug boat go through. The water was so high that all the barges were using a pilot tug boat to steer them through. We watched for a while but it was entirely too hot to stay outside long. We're glad to be settled back in at home now. I've got more from this week but I'll sign off for now.

Day 2: Abbott & Costello-ing it Up/Day 3: Destination Mimi & Paw's

Our second day on the road went smoothly. Alex began watching Abbott & Costello meet Frankenstein as soon as we left the hotel. We listened to maniacal giggling from the backseat for almost two hours. We had good weather for the most part and only saw one accident - a tractor-trailer overturned in the opposite lane.

In Jackson, Mississippi we introduced Alex to one of our favorite places to stop along the way. There is a great lunch spot called Broad Street Bakery there, and the food is to die for. Art had gumbo, Alex had a luscious grilled cheese on fresh made bread with Zapp's potato chips and I had an awesome cheese pizza on focaccia bread. I also had to get one of their red velvet cupcakes for dessert. Alex got a cathead chocolate chip cookie with his meal. Seriously, it was the size of a salad plate.

I was allowed to drive from Jackson on. As we got to the Mississippi River the sky got very dark. As we got into the delta it looked worse and worse. (I think it looks so bad because you can see so far there.) We watched lightning for a few miles, then the rain hit. The temperature dropped 20 degrees. We finally had to pull off the interstate because the rain was so heavy. I couldn't see a thing. All the eighteen-wheelers pulled over to the shoulder. It was a little unnerving that the exit we got off at was Tallulah - where the tornado struck a few weeks ago. After 10 minutes or so, we were able to go on.

We made it to Mimi's office with no further excitement. Alex and I went with her to see Granny at her new place. She moved to the nursing home a few months after our last visit. They have ducks and baby ducks and a nice pond. More importantly, Santa may live there. There was a man with a long white beard in a wheelchair who greeted us with "Ho, ho, ho!" Alex is almost convinced that Santa hangs out there in the off season. We are going to assign Granny to keep an eye on him.

Today Alex is hanging out with the grandparents and waiting for Uncle Brad to arrive this afternoon. He's been up since 5:45 a.m., so I told him he may need a nap before dinner tonight. He was okay with it. He was concerned to learn this morning while watching the news that the oil spill was on their TV as well. We told him it was in Louisiana and he was quite distressed. We explained that it was on the ocean side of LA, which is a good way off, like the ocean side of SC. More on the visit later (and pictures).

On the Road

Alex was packed and ready to go last night before he went to bed. He woke me up at 4:41 a.m., saying that he'd had a bad dream. He got in bed with us, but that was too many people in too little bed. After a few minutes I went back to his room with him. He told me about his dream. A bear had killed his preschool teacher and was chasing he and his classmates. Needless to say, it took a while to get him settled down. A little after 6 I went back to my own bed. The next thing I knew it was 7:45 and Art was getting ready to go. I asked if Alex was up yet - Art said he'd been up since 10 minutes after I came back to our room. So much for sleeping late.

While Art ran in to the office for a few minutes, Alex and I got ready. We had all of our stuff ready to go when he got back. Alex was wheeling his suitcase up and down the hall asking me, "May I show you to your room?" We have a budding bellboy on our hands.

The first leg of our trip was thankfully uneventful (yes, I am knocking on wood). Hopefully we'll get to Mimi and Paw's tomorrow with a minimum of trouble. There was one argument today that arose from Alex's fundamental misunderstanding of the X-Men. I finally gave up. And, yes, I realize it's partly (at least) my hard head that started it. Since he has never seen the X-Men movies, for obvious reasons, he thinks Wolverine is X-Man. He will brook no opposition in this matter. I can't let it go. He doesn't think my being able to read is enough of a qualification to believe I know what I'm talking about. Somewhere around Birmingham I gave up.

Art and I did learn something over supper. While waiting an incredibly long time for our food at Cracker Barrel, I was playing with the little wooden peg/golf tee game. I finished with a pathetic five pegs left and told the boys that the game said that made me an ignoramous. Art said perhaps we shouldn't add that word to Alex's vocabulary at this point. Alex announced, "I heard that ignoramous is Japanese for 'loser'." I thought Art and I were going to hurt ourselves. We'll keep you posted if we learn any more Japanese!

Wal-Mart & Waffle House with Alex

Saturday Alex went with me on my errands. This is always exciting. First, we had the oil in the car changed. The highlight of this stop is looking at the hole in the garage where the guy is to change the oil. Alex is fascinated that the car drives over him. That was quick and easy with a minimum of distraction.

Then we stopped at Sonic to get food on the way to the library and Wal-Mart. Shortly after we left (before Alex ate anything but after he saw his kids’ meal toy) he announced that he didn’t feel well – his stomach hurt. Here is where I must put my interpreting skills to work. We played “Many Questions.” Does your stomach hurt, or do you not want to eat your food? Did you just want the toy? Do you need to go home or can you still make it to the rest of our stops? Do you have to throw up, or use the bathroom? We settled on him needing to go home and use the bathroom. After a quick pit stop we continued on, oh, yeah, there was the lecture about why didn’t we go at the oil change place or Sonic, etc., instead of making me drive home. There was no good answer.

Next we went to the library. We’ve got a bit of a road trip coming up so we stocked up on some books we might need. We got a couple of DVDs and a book on how to draw dragons. Hopefully that will keep him occupied for a few miles anyway. We also have Netflix sending us a couple of Abbott & Costello movies. I also have a little bag of goodies I can hand out state by state. We’ve started on the second Harry Potter book as well, but I’m not sure if I can read while we’re riding. I still can’t believe he sat through the entire first book, but he begged for a week until we started the second one.

(Poor deprived child: in the first Harry Potter book there is a mirror that shows the person looking into it the thing he wants most. After we finished reading that night I asked Alex what he would see if he looked into that mirror. “Two TVs,” he answered.)

On to our last stop at Wal-Mart. First we needed plants for the flower pots on the patio. As I’m browsing the marigolds and petunias, Alex announced that he wanted a plant that ate bugs. I told him that I wasn’t sure they had them, but we’d look. He kept finding flowers with buds on them and asking if they ate bugs. No, they don’t, so we looked inside with the house plants. None there either, we’ll keep looking. As we walked through electronics Alex tells me, “I think you should break up with Dad.” Why? It boils down to Art being an intrusion that takes my full attention away from Alex. With him out of the way life would be better, according to Alex. I brought up the one TV thing again and told him that if Dad left he might take it with him. That stopped that talk.

Alex danced and sang his way through the aisles. At one point I told him to stop. He told me, “I can’t, Mom; I’m stuck on dance mode.” Sigh.

Last night Art had a meeting so we headed to Waffle House. The waitress asked him how many time-outs he had that day. He said one, he thought. Not bad. (He told Art it was because he called someone a fathead. Not the words I would’ve chosen, but the kid does have a big head.) He continued his insistence on runny fried eggs. He had those, bacon, toast, hash browns and a waffle (and ate most of it). The only person to come in while we were there sat a couple of seats down from us at the counter. He must have been a regular because they brought his coffee right away. A few minutes later he still hadn’t ordered, so Alex asked “Why does he just have a drink and no food?” The man thought that was pretty funny. The two of them struck up a conversation; his grandson is at the school Alex will start in August. When we left Alex did one of his dance move exits (reminiscent of Michael Jackson, but G-rated) at the door. The whole place cracked up.

Tonight is T-ball. That is going much better. They got uniform shirts last week and that improved his team spirit immensely. The second practice also had them in actual positions, batting and running like in a real game. Now he’s actually looking forward to it. We may have rain but they have a good indoor space that they will meet in if we’re rained out. Hopefully he’ll be happy to be there again tonight.

Update: T-ball did not go as well as last week. Apparently the third baseman is supposed to stand while in his position. Who knew? The whole thing was a Chinese fire drill - it wasn't just Alex. Kids ran to the wrong bases, one got passed while running bases and two collided going for the same ball. I think it broke the coaches' spirit 'cause they let practice out 15 minutes early. Oh, well.

I'm including some pictures of Art's latest handiwork. He made us a rain barrel (I found the design online). He's using it with a timer to water all our plants. It's amazing how much water it collects. It's hooked up to the gutter on the shed and less than an inch of rain will completely fill it.

He also made a planter for his vegetables. It had a spotty start, as he put it in my former parking place, and I'm not good with change. I took out a terra cotta pot the first morning I left for work. (It's not like I eat tomatoes!) Alex has high hopes for the butternut squash.

The Great T-Ball Experiment

Alex’s friend Bennett is playing t-ball through the city program. When Alex saw him in his uniform (or “costume” as Alex calls it), he decided he wanted to play. Unfortunately, bad mom that I am, I had no idea when they signed up, played, etc., so we missed the city cutoff. As luck would have it, two days later, on my way home from work I saw a sign up at the YMCA advertising sign-ups for T-Ball and Coaches’ Pitch teams. I went on their website when I got home. Of course, sign-up had ended that day. I know the fabulous Y director Anna, though, and sent her pitiful email begging for an extension. She graciously (and swiftly) agreed so that our household did not have to live in suspense.

Okay, everyone who knows me knows that I am not athletic by any means. I could not care less about standing in the broiling sun (more about that later) by a ball field. But, Alex wanted to do it, AND I figured if he doesn’t learn the basics now, it will be way harder for him to pick it up in a few years when everyone else on the team already knows how to play. So, I thought t-ball was a benign way to go.

I announced that he was signed up – much excitement. We acquired a t-ball set over the weekend so we could practice batting from the tee, catching with a foam ball, etc. Tuesday was D-Day, or T-Day, as it were. Alex was really excited. He had his hat, glove and water bottle, and we headed to the Y. The Y program is a bit more low-key than the city’s. They focus more on skills and basics. Everyone gets a team t-shirt, but no uniforms or official schedules/games. So, how did practice go?

First off, it was at least 10 degrees hotter than it has been lately. The car thermometer said 85, but it felt 105, at least. Alex skipped out to the field and met his coaches, Coach April and Coach Jennifer. (Coach Jennifer’s husband helps, too, but I didn’t catch his name.) There were 12 or so kids on the team or vastly varying ages and abilities. There’s a 3-year-old that was awesome and a 7-year-old that they had to convince where the bases were. Alex falls in between. I first suspected an attention span problem when they lined up to run the bases and Alex was near the end of the line. He started flapping his arms and clucking while waiting his turn. (Establishing the class clown thing early on, I guess.) He ran the bases, all is well.

Then they divided the team in half with Alex’s group going to batting practice and the other half heading out to practice throwing and catching. Alex was the first at bat after we found a helmet that would fit on his big old head. It took him a couple of times to get the hang of it but he did pretty well. He just has to focus and keep his eye on the ball. The difficulty came after he finished. Since he was the first one, he had to wait in right field-ish for the six or so others to bat. It was hot, he was bored. He heckled a batter – “COME ON – HIT IT!” That was when the coaches decided to take a water break. This was about 45 minutes into the hour-long practice. When he made it off the field he announced that he’d never wanted to do this, was ready to leave and was never coming back. We forced him back on the field. He sat down on first base. When the rest of the team came out he got up for a minute. There was a hit near mid-field and two or three others tried to get the ball as well as Alex. When he didn’t get there in time he threw down his glove and stomped on it. Another kid kicked at it, and I thought there might be a knockdown drag-out for a moment but Coach April stepped in. Art was trying not to laugh and I was hiding behind a tree. She got them separated but that was pretty much it for Alex. He sat down, took off his hat and glove and pouted. The coach tried to get him up for a minute but gave up. Shortly thereafter they had a team huddle to end the practice. Alex (through a combination of intense sign language gestures and yelling) was made to participate. The team (except for Alex) voted on a team name. They are now the Green Gators. The coach told me, “I think he was upset that the name he wanted didn’t win.” I thought she’d lost him a good ten minutes before that, but I didn’t say so.

Alex dragged his feet and pouted all the way home. He said he was never going back. I got out of him one reason he didn’t like it. He thought there’d be a ready made team with a game right away, scorekeeping, etc. I explained that they had to learn the rules before they did that and the games would come later. He still wanted to quit. I told him it was only six weeks. He has five more weeks with one practice each week, so 5 hours total until June. He was on the fence until I told him that if he didn’t finish I was selling his toys until I got my money back. That sealed the deal.

At school the next day his teacher asked me how it went, since he’d talked so much about it. She said that he told them how they were learning the rules and how much fun it was. Little turkey.

Another note from school: they may have found a way to get him to behave at naptime. When I picked him up yesterday I asked what they had done in school. Here’s the list:

- ate hot dogs
- played outside
- learned about Cinco de Mayo
- visited the babies’ room (the 2-year-olds’ class)

Hmmm. Why did you go see the babies? Did you have storytime together? “No, they sent me over there because I kept talking to Michael and waking him up during nap.” It turns out that his punishment is to take his mat into the 2 year old room. He doesn’t know them very well and they are “babies” so he doesn’t talk to any of them. I don’t think he sleeps but at least he doesn’t bother anyone else. He’d told Art that he’d been in the baby room the day before as well, but Art didn’t ask for what. So they’ve done it at least two days and his teacher says it works. Not bad.

Week in Review

Okay, let's see where I left off. Mom and Dad got here for their visit last Sunday. They were delayed a day by the storms and tornadoes that went across Mississippi AND trying to find a place to stop for the night. They managed to stay behind the storms but couldn't get any closer than Tuscaloosa on Saturday because everything was booked up for the races at Talladega. Alex had big plans for them and couldn't wait for them to get here. We told him Saturday night that they'd be here the next day. I woke up at 7:45 Sunday morning and he was standing at the foot of our bed, arms crossed. "You SAID they'd be here today. I looked outside - THEIR CAR IS NOT HERE!" They did get here before lunch and he was well pleased. Alex, Mimi & Paw were going to stay here Monday while Art and I had to work. I asked them what they were going to do while we were gone. "Oh, you know, just be together."

Sunday afternoon we had to return some books and DVDs to the library. I asked Mom & Dad if they wanted to ride with us. They thought they'd rather hang around the house and rest some but Alex was having none of that. He really talked up how awesome his library was, so they decided they would go. When we got there Alex told Paw the rules - "You have to be quiet and you can't run away." Paw said he'd try to behave. Then we walked in, and how wonderful - Alex's librarian was there! Alex thinks Mrs. Patty is his personal librarian and no one has convinced him otherwise. He made the introductions. A red letter afternoon.

Since Mom & Dad had to leave on Wednesday morning we decided to go out to eat Tuesday night. I asked Alex to change shirts (he was wearing a kind of ratty t-shirt). "Is this place fancy?" I told him not quite fancy, but a little nicer than a t-shirt. "I need to wear my tie." We discussed this, strenuously. In the end, I ironed his one and only white dress shirt, which he left untucked, with his pants and red Crocs, and he wore his one and only tie, from Easter a year ago. He really impressed the waitresses. He also talked in "fancy language" which has no correlation to any language I've ever heard. This morning I asked if he wanted to go to church with me. Negotiations broke down when I mentioned that his dress shirt was still in the laundry, so he couldn't wear his tie. He stayed home with Art.

Alex was sad when Mimi & Paw had to leave but we consoled him with the fact that we're going to visit them in three weeks. He has it marked on his calendar and he's ready to go.

Yesterday on the way to the grocery store:

Alex: "Mom, do you know what I am?"
Me: (unsure) "What?"
Alex: "I'm a singer-songwriter."

I quizzed Art about this later and he told me during one of the many singing spells that Alex takes every day, Art asked him who wrote the song he was singing. Alex told him that he does all his own material. Art mentioned that he told him he was a singer-songwriter. That was two weeks ago, so I guess he was just saving it up for me. He has been singing (over and over and over again) a snippet of a song that I finally decided was "All Star." I thought he would like it if I downloaded it from iTunes for him. I did, and called him in while I played it. He started dancing, and I asked if he knew that song. "Yeah! That's the song from Shrek." Isn't that what you've been singing to us? "NO!" Well, excuse me.

The Harry Potter saga continues. We're past the 200-page mark. I thought he was ignoring me tonight but he's fascinated my the invisibility cloak in the story. He also made Art play chess with him today (wish I'd been here for that!) which they did in the book a day or so ago. Thankfully we don't have much more to go. I'm looking forward to Art reading regular books to him again. When we went to the library yesterday I got him several on Vikings because he was asking lots of questions after seeing "How to Train Your Dragon." (He was disappointed to learn that I was never a Viking.) HE chose a children's book on anatomy. Why, you say? Because it has "bottoms" in it - "lots of bottoms." Sigh. That's where I'm going to leave it for now. Tuesday T-ball starts. Art's theory: Alex is not a team player kind of guy. My theory: even if he isn't, he needs to learn the rules of baseball before he turns 12 and wants to play with the guys and just looks silly. I'll let you know how it goes. It's a fairly low-key YMCA program - "instructional" they call it, more of a learning experience than anything. It starts this week and goes midway through June.