Nicky - age 18
Cars
No, not the vehicles. Cars the movie. As in he has regressed to being a three year old again. He has Lightning McQueen Crocs, all sorts of action figures, and an assortment of clothing.
Bluey
Again, my 18 year old son is actually a three year old. Bluey pajamas, BFF bracelets, and his Jeep is named Bandit (and he has a Bluey stuffy on his dashboard… next to a Lightning McQueen).
Musicals
He still loves everything Lin Manuel Miranda, but some of his other favorites right now are Bonnie and Clyde and Jersey Boys, and he is still in love with The Music Man and listens to it all the time.
We had tickets to see Jersey Boys at the Ruth in March, and our show got canceled! He was devastated. We rescheduled for late April.
Flying kites
Nicky’s and his friend Jackson have been really into flying kites lately. They have bought at least 20 $2 kites from Walmart (mostly Bluey ones) and they fly them out of their car window in church parking lots. They also gift them to everyone.
Puka shell necklaces
He wears one everyday, and he’s not convinced that all the boys I went to high school with wore the same kind!
True Crime
Nicky recently watched a few documentaries (JonBenet, Gabby Petito, Ruby Frankie, etc) and he’s hooked.
Also…
- Hawaiian BBQ Pizza from Papa John’s
- Winning stuff on the radio
- Dancing and performing
Daisy - age 15
Boys
Ugh. It is The Worst. She texts me about boys all day long. The good, the bad, and the ugly. She loves Ryan Gosling, Glen Powell, and Chris Pratt. She loves cowboys. She loves Logan. She loves Jess. She has a weird thing for Draco Malfoy that I’ve never been able to distinguish as a joke or for real.
Chick-Fil-A
Girl asks for Chick-fil-A everyday. “Can we go to Chick-fil-A?” “I want Chick-fil-A.” “We should get Chick-fil-A!”
Clothes
Daisy has so many clothes, and she always says she wants to go shopping for more. Last month I made her get rid of half her clothes. It was very traumatic. She doesn’t really follow current fashion trends - but she loves clothes and has her own style. She also gets lots of hand-me-downs, which is so wonderful, but it makes for a very full closet.
Body Spray
She’s a teenage girl. What can I say?
Theatre
She had her moment as Ariel in Footloose, and she really enjoyed it, but since starting high school she has been unsure whether she wants to continue doing theatre. We pushed her to do The Music Man because we wanted her to have the experience of being in a musical with Nicky, and that was her only chance. My instinct was that she would like theatre, but she was intimidated by the teacher and by being the youngest in the school. Now she’s much more comfortable and knows the theatre teacher really well, and she wants to continue in theatre. She is currently in a theatre class and will be in two theatre classes next year.
Yellow
It’s her favorite color.
Also…
- Benson Boone
- Grandma’s Cookies (as in the brand)
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Zoe - age 12
Making knitted hats on a loom
She learned how to do this at a church activity, and now it’s her favorite hobby.
Theatre
This is her most annoying obsession. She wants to be the star of everything, and she thinks she’s the best at everything. She talks about theatre camp and her school drama program non-stop. She writes plays and wants to hold auditions and make her own productions. She is always trying to cast her friends in her plays (they’re not interested).
Dessert
After every meal, Zoe asks what’s for dessert. The answer is usually “nothing.” We’ve never routinely provided dessert after meals, so I don’t know why she has a daily expectation for it. She always says, “I could really go for some [insert choice of dessert here].”
Braids
She likes to braid her hair in all different ways, and she’s not terrible at it.
Also…
Eva - age 9.9
Enya
But she can’t remember how to say her name, so it’s different everyday. She asks to listen to “Orinoco Flow” everyday on the way to school.
Resin animals and 3-D printed animals
She brings home tiny duckies and other animals from school that she has found or traded with her friends everyday. They are all over my house. I have to admit, I like them better than squishies because at least they do t have hair stuck to them.
Scamanda
Eva watched some of the Scamanda documentary with me a while ago, and now she talks about it all the time and asks me what happened to Scamanda.
Dogs
I think 90% of parenting right now is managing “Can I get a cell phone?” and “Can we get a [insert pet of the day]?” I think I get asked these questions at least 10 times a day. Right now Eva really wants a dog, and she is always telling me about the different breeds of dogs she likes (Eva, too. Daisy, however, asks for cats and chinchillas).
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The photos in this post are from our April Fools dinner earlier this week. I realized I haven’t been taking very many photos lately, so whenever I write a blog post, I’m finding my albums lacking.
