We Can Dance If We Want To

Yesterday, I took the kids to their day camp at The Bell Museum. We had been singing Safety Dance in the car and I continued to sing the song quietly to myself as we walked into the building. Miguel squeezed my hand and said, "Stop mom. You're embarrassing me." I looked at him, gave him a wink and said, "Oh, okay. I get it." I then walked a bit ahead, turned back and said, "You want me to keep the singing on the down low?" He gritted his teeth and nodded. Gotcha. I signed both kids in and then Miguel and I walked Zeca to her classroom in the basement. After that, we headed to his classroom on the third floor of the building and I said, "I feel like dancing." He looked at me with his most serious look and said, "Mom. I mean it. Don't." I looked around and no one was looking so I started doing a little SSSS AAAA FFFF EEEE TTTT YYYY SAFETY DANCE! He grabbed me by the hand and growled, "Mom. Please." I stopped dancing, laughed and gave him a big hug.

We walked up two floors without incident but the acoustics in the stairwell were just perfect and there was this small balcony on the landing and I couldn't help but break into Someone Like You in my most earnest falsetto. He desperately yelled "Stop!" and grabbed me by the hand to drag me the rest of the way upstairs. We finally arrived at his classroom and he gave me the signal that there was to be no goodbye hug and I said in my most cool and casual voice, "See ya..."

I laughed all the way to the car because today...today is the dawn of a new era, an era in which I have the power to embarrass my son with very little effort. For all the times he acted like a maniac in playgroups...for the time he told his teacher about my morning private time in the bathroom...for the time he sniffed a girl's hair at the park and the parents stared at me...for the times he yelled in quiet places and asked me about my tampons in public bathrooms...for every embarrassing thing he has done for the past 10 years - I shall now exact my revenge!

Let the fun begin.

The Count

Sometimes, a day starts out like any other day and then turns into something unexpectedly magical. Today was one of those days. It started out with a twitter conversation about breakfast cereal initiated by @klr7. You can see our conversation below:

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/klr74/status/105675068029407232"]

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/uppoppedafox/status/105679090790576128"]

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/klr74/status/105681160054636544"]

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/uppoppedafox/status/105685830894497793"]

I must admit that I was rather proud of that last tweet and figured that the conversation had peaked. But no, my friends, it had not. Later in the day, I received the following response to my tweet:

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/Count__Chocula/status/105796704212750336"]

That's right...Count Chocula tweeted me and told me that I've always been in his heart. And if that wasn't enough, a few minutes later I received an e-mail informing me that Count Chocula was following me on Twitter. A dream was realized today...a dream that I didn't even know I had.

My 6 year old Count Chocula lovin' self now thinks my 42 year old Grape Nuts eatin' self is pretty damn cool.

Roam

When you are about to embark on a month-long vacation, I recommend frittering away time on the internet. Who needs to pack? Who needs to charge the 1,239 portable electronic devices that your family of 4 will bring along? Why figure out if you have tampons right now when you can do that tomorrow morning in a frenetic, hysterical rush? It adds to the excitement, right? This is to say that we are leaving tomorrow for an extended vacation and will not return until 7/27/11. We fly out tomorrow to our first exotic locale - Pittsburgh. There we will be having a family reunion of sorts. The kids will run around wild (especially since Luisa's mother promised them donuts AND juice for breakfast every single day!) and then splash in the pool. I imagine I will sit near the pool and make sure they don't drown while partaking of some "adult juice". On Sunday, we leave Pittsburgh for Rome. The Rome in Italy! I've excited because I've never been there and I'm incredibly nervous because I've never been there. Don't you wish that you could travel with me? We'll be in Rome for 6 days. Below you will find each family member's wishlist:

Luisa: "I want to see the Collosseum!"

Miguel: "I want to see the architecture!"

Zeca: "I want to have gelato!"

Vikki: "I want to see the face of the Pope on my toast!"

From Rome, we fly to Lisbon where we will spend a glorious 3 weeks. We'll spend a little time in Lisbon, a little time down south in Melides and a little time up north with Luisa's family.

In 2006 and 2008, I made vague promises about blogging every day while on the trip. Many things kept me from making good on those promises...things like the beach and champagne and wine and exhaustion. I've learned to lower my expectations (which is frightening because I didn't think they could get any lower). My intention is to try to share the trip with all of you...even if it's just a picture and a few words. So, let's shoot for that.

Roam. Rome. Whatever.

The B-52's - Roam from booboobay1 on Vimeo.

Also, check out my post on Aiming Low about the difference between preparing for a trip like this before children and after.