A Paean to John

John is 12 today and already as tall as I am (It's official, we measured him this morning as part of the birthday tradition.) So this post is to John. And believe me, there's a lot to celebrate.

John is the two year old who climbed everything, including the 6 foot bookshelves in the front room where he got stuck. Twice. You still can't tell him anything.

John fights me. He calls me on stuff. He tells me when I need a time out - the first time when he was maybe four. When I complain about this to my mother, she just smiles.

John despises Math Facts. He also, I am finally beginning to realise, is actually really good at math, but will second guess himself into the wrong answer when you ask him how he got the right one. (Yeah, but just try to get him to believe that if he practiced the basics he be more confident in his skills. The math equivalent of swatching.)

John keeps me in touch with popular culture. Admittedly, I find this a mixed blessing; there's a lot of popular culture about which I would really rather not know. **Okay, pause for a complete non sequitur here, but you know, I have got to learn that a preposition is a perfectly good word with which to end a sentence. I mean to end a sentence with. Sorry, Sister Marcella. ** Anyway, because of John I can speak about Pikachu and Ash, the Green Ranger, and Ron Stoppable's naked mole rat, Rufus. John is my TV-watching, Gameboy, computer freak.

He wants to write comic strips when he grows up and his most prized possession in his low-tech comic journal.

So here is the day planned out by John as king of said day (and I mostly quote):

School, because birthdays don't get you everything.
Doughnuts and presents after school, because that's what we do.
Homework, because you can't get out of that either.
Pizza for supper.
A DVD of his choosing in the middle of the week. This is a special treat as there is no TV in this house after supper on school nights. Just call me Attila.



This is the kid who wanted to be driven to school today, but asked for a ride while there was still time to walk. Is he great, or what?

All hail John.







PS. Knitting content will return with the next post. I just make no promises about when that will be. I have reached the middle of the dreaded fourth repeat in the chevron scarf. This is the point in most projects where it's knit one row, rip two back. Knitting without tears, ha!