I picked the boys up from camp today and things are starting to feel like normal again. It was amazing to see how much milk, bread, fruit, and clean dishes lasted while they were gone for a week. That will all change before bedtime, I’m sure.

They go back to camp in two weeks, only this time it will be for day camp, not resident camp. They’re looking forward to going back, but they’re happy they’ll be sleeping at home.

I know that my boys are a little bit spoiled. They have too many toys, not enough limits, and I’m a bit overprotective. But I feel pretty confident that they’re much better off than a lot of children. Tonight’s example, Ryan and the fireworks.

Tonight was the first chance we’ve had to display our fireworks since the Fourth. Just before dark, I called the boys in from the neighbor’s yard and told them they could invite their friends to watch too. As we gathered near the street, Ryan’s dad got in his truck and drove by. He told us he’d be back in 10 minutes with more fireworks. I figured he was just trying to bond with Rob over fireworks. When he got back, I learned that his wife sent him out to get fireworks because Ryan was jealous that WE had fireworks and HE didn’t. And if he didn’t get fireworks, he was going to throw a tantrum.

Don’t get me started on children who are allowed to binge on food at a very young age.

Each and every item, from backpacks to lunchboxes to shoes has been labelled. School supplies have been packed in brand new pencil boxes. Lunches have been made, snacks have been wrapped, and water bottles have been packed. Today is the first day of school for my big first graders. Oh, they’ve ridden the bus, and they’ve had a teacher, but this is the real thing. For me, this means I will be able to make more than one stop on the errands list before coming home. Kindergarten was three hours long, but first grade is all day. ALL DAY.

My school district is not very good about letting the parent’s know things one might consider important. For example, the bus schedule appeared in one newspaper. Don’t get the paper? You don’t have the schedule. Another example would be the major construction that’s going on in nearly all the schools in this district. Teachers have been mailing welcome letters from their homes because they can’t get in the buildings. The construction is that massive.

Example number three happened this morning while we were waiting for the bus. A neighbor came out at 7:30 and asked, “Did you know that school has been postponed until Wednesday?” Well, if I knew that, it would be a little silly to be standing outside at 7:30 waiting for the bus, wouldn’t it? Apparently the decision was made last Thursday or Friday. The first day of school has been postponed until Wednesday due to the construction. I must be the world’s worst parent to not have known to check the local pizza place for this announcement. Yes that’s right. The pizza place had an announcement posted. I understand that the local daycares made the announcement too, which of course means nothing to the parents whose children DON’T GO TO DAYCARE.

After several weeks of unusually cool weather, it has turned hot again in SE Michigan. I was starting to feel a little bad that I wouldn’t be able to take the boys to the lake one last time before school started. But good old Michigan didn’t let me down, and turned hot again just six days before the first day of school. So naturally, we took advantage of it. That was yesterday.

Today, we spent the afternoon shopping for school supplies. It took six hours. Yes, six hours. What did we accomplish in that six hours? We bought shoes, lunch boxes, supplies (like crayons and scissors) and watches. That’s it. That was six hours worth of shopping. The reason? Well, part of it was that I had to drive to two different places for the shoes. Let me tell you, buying shoes for twin boys is excruciatingly difficult. I admit, though, I am picky about their shoes.

First, I hate cartoon characters on their shoes. And for boys, that leaves very few choices. There are so few choices for boys anyway. Next, I look for shoes that don’t have lights or other stupid gadgety things. Then I eliminate all the shoes that are just plain ugly or too grown up looking. My last requirement for today was shoes without laces. I should mention that the boys have shoes I bought for them only a few months ago. Those shoes have laces. The new shoes are the “extra” pair that the school has requested every child have. My thought was that they will be able to change their shoes easily during school, without getting frustrated over the laces. They do know how to tie their shoes, so get those “what kind of six year old can’t tie his own laces yet?” ideas out of your head.

So, after searching and searching, I finally found the shoes. BUT, the hunt was not over yet. I have twins, remember? They have the same shoe size. No, not even a half size different. The same. Also, this is the week before school starts around here. Yes, it’s my own fault for waiting until now to look for shoes, so maybe I have no place to complain. Regardless, I am complaining! We found one pair of shoes in a size 13 1/2. One. Luckily, another store nearby had the shoes in the right size, so the story has a happy ending. And a happy ending is a nice thing when the story is six hours long.

Isn’t it funny how we parents measure our children’s growth by the little accomplishments? Their first smile, the first time they raise their head, the first time they roll over. As they get older, the accomplishments continue. Climbing the stairs, riding a bike, tying their shoes. Today, one of my boys accomplished another important milestone. Congratulations, Jacob. You blew your first bubble.

I’ve always had imaginary friends. I actually had more like whole imaginary worlds. Usually, I played someone different in these worlds, but occassionally I played me. I’ve come to the realization that I still have imaginary friends. I don’t call them that of course because that would be even stranger than having them at my age. Nowadays, I call them characters in my game.

These friends are very different from me, which can make it difficult to work with them sometimes. One character has a much broader vocabulary than I do, and believe me, it’s difficult! They always surprise me, these characters. My family asks me how I’m able to invent these things for them, but I have no answer for that. It’s really like they’re doing it themselves, and I’m just the mechanism by which they are able to live.

My sons have inherited their imaginations from me. Particularly, my Jacob. Since he was very young, probably two-ish, he’s had an imaginary friend. Or as he would say imagin-ARY friend. His friend’s name is Mai-Mai (pronounced may-may… I don’t know if that’s how he spells it as I’ve never actually met Mai-Mai myself.) Mai-Mai used to live in California, but then he moved to Texas. He’s currently in South America. He has a pet saurolophus and a pocket watch that lets him become any age. I kid you not, I suggested none of this to him. Jacob tells Mai-Mai stories the way I tell my characters’ stories. They just flow from him with seemingly little effort.

I tell my boys stories about my characters, and about my imaginary world that I created when I was a child. (I told them the entrance to my magickal world exists in the woods surrounding my parents house. They look for it every time they visit.) They recently asked me if these friends of mine were real. I was afraid to answer that. They are real in a sense. And I didn’t want to crush their dreams at such a young age. (They’re often disappointed when they learn that movies aren’t real. “We can’t be a real Jedi Knight?”) But I told them the truth. I told them that my friends are imaginary. The funny thing is, they didn’t seem at all disappointed.

We had the families over to celebrate Independence Day yesterday. The weather was perfect–bright sun, strong breeze, no rain. Today, however, it has been raining off and on all day. It’s raining again as I write. I’d say it was a good call having the families over yesterday.

In other news, we went to see Harry Potter 3 today. I gave in to the boys on Friday and took them to the arcade. We won nearly 400 tickets between the three of us. When it was time to cash them in, the boys both decided they wanted to get a sucker. A 5 ticket sucker. When I told them they had enough tickets to get more than a sucker, they decided they each wanted two suckers. Two 5 ticket suckers each.

My boys, just because.

Brendan

Jacob