An interview with a 4 year old

I read in a magazine the other day how some moms interview their kids at the end of the school year and put their interviews in cute albums to save for the kids when they are grown. I'm going to half-ass this project and type my interview with Pirate in a blog. If my blog still exists when he's an adult, he can read it then.
I just Googled "end of preschool child interviews" and a bunch of different ideas came up. I took questions from a few different sites and sat down with my 4 year old to get some answers. The idea is to do this for both kids, but we'll see if I remember.

An Interview with Pirate - June 2012

What is your name?  Andrew
How old are you?  4 but I'm almost 5
Where do you live? Westminster
What does your house look like? it looks like it is painted white
Who do you live with? Mommy, Daddy, Rei, Evan, Grayson, Landon
What is your mom's name? Amy
How old is she? 32
How much does she weigh? 4
What is her favorite thing to do? feed the babies
What is something she does not like to do? clean the toilets
What does she like to eat? bagels
What does she like to drink? coffee
What do you like to do with her? snuggle with her
What is your dad's name? Buster
How old is he? 36
How much does he weigh? 4
What is his favorite thing to do? take us for a walk
What is something he does not like to do?  eat gross stuff
What does he like to eat?  Corn flakes
What does he like to drink? coffee
What do you like to do with him? Play Go Fish

What is your favorite food?  Poptarts
What is a food you do not like to eat? broccoli
Where is your favorite place to eat? Subway
What do you like to order there?  turkey sub with no gross olives
What is your favorite color? red
What makes me happy?  going to the playground
What makes me sad? not getting new Batman toys
What are you afraid of?  monsters
What is your favorite thing to do? Go to the pool
What is something you wish for? more Playmobil Pirates
Where would you like to visit? Disney World
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
What is your favorite toy? Transformers
What is your favorite animal? dog
What is your favorite book? That Batman book we got at the library
What is your favorite song?  Row, Row, Row Your Boat
What is your favorite game? Hide & Seek
What do you want to be when you grow up? a dentist
Who do you love? Mommy & Daddy & my whole family
What did you like best about preschool? Playing with my friends

Who was your best friend? Sawyer

What did you learn at preschool? I learned words

What did you make?  that octopus on the wall

What do you think kindergarten will be like? I don’t know

What are you excited for in big school? Playing on the big playground there

What do you think you will learn there? How to read

What is something new you want to try this year? playing soccer

If you could get only one present this year, what would it be? The musical Jake boat

I'm impressed he knows the right ages for both of us! I love that we both only weigh 4. I'm not sure if that means 4 pounds or if he has another measurement. This interview clearly took place in the morning because he named the foods we had for breakfast. He just had a dentist appointment this week, so now he wants to be a dentist. He usually changes what he wants to be 3-4 times a week. Disney World is a on the "Maybe one day if we hit the lottery or grow a money tree" list of things we'd like to do with the kids one day. And he asks for the musical Jake & The Neverland Pirates ship about 10 times a day. His birthday is in a month, but that boat is expensive, and he'll love it for about 30 seconds. Not sure it's worth it! Anyway, this was a fun thing to do with my little man. Hopefully I can remember to do this with the other kids one day too!

showing off his 2nd lost tooth

Fifteen years later

Yesterday was exactly fifteen years since my high school graduation. Fifteen years is a long time. In recent years, I haven't thought much about graduation.  At the time, I didn't appreciate the experience as much as I should have. I was ready for the ceremony to be over and go party with my friends. I didn't go to my five year reunion because it was right before my wedding. My ten year reunion was a two day event, and I was able to go the first night. It was nice to see girls from high school and catch up with them. Now that Facebook exists, we can keep up with each other online. Hopefully we'll have another reunion to see each other again, not just through profile pictures!

I went to an all girl Catholic high school, Mount de Sales Academy. It might sound unappealing to some, but I absolutely loved it! We wore uniforms and went to Mass and Confession every month.  Religion was not an elective, we had it every single day, all four years. We had strict rules like not crossing from one side of the school to the other on the first floor and always wearing every part of the uniform, including the nametag. We got detention and demerits for things like excessive talking, missing pieces of the uniform, and cutting through the senior hallway or choir loft. We didn't ride buses to school. Our parents dropped us off, or we drove ourselves, if we were lucky enough to pass driver's ed and have a car. We didn't have a gym at the school. Our dances and graduation took place in the Music Hall. Gym classes took place in an old smelly room called the Refectory. At those school dances, the nuns were chaperones, and we were encouraged to "leave room for the Holy Spirit" while dancing with our dates. The school was small. We had 79 people in our graduating class. We all knew each other by name, even if we weren't close friends. All of this might sound strange if you didn't go to my school. Reading these sentences, the rules do sound kind of wacky. But they were perfect for the school. They made sense. I know that the school has changed since I went there. It has grown.  I recently read that this year will be the 160th graduation with122 girls.

I might not have always appreciated what I had at MdeS, especially when I was serving Saturday detention for coming to school late because we decided to go out to breakfast instead of going right to school. But I really did have best time there, and I made the greatest friends of my life. I am lucky to say that I still have the best friends from high school, true friends, some of which I met as a freshman in the fall of 1993. By senior year, I had some of the friends I would have for life. I didn't realize it at the time, that what we had was so special that we would be friends for life.  Maybe it's because we've literally been to hell and back together and we realized how short life is and not to take our friendships for granted. Out of a tragedy in 2005, the worst experience and darkest time of my life, a bond with my friends was formed that cannot be broken, no matter where our paths in life take us.

Here I am fifteen years later, getting all nostalgic and remembering the "glory days" of high school. I can now appreciate the stories my dad would tell about his younger days and why he'd be so excited talking about old times, although I was totally bored listening to him at the time. I'm sure my kids will be just as bored when I tell them stories about my past as well. Circle of Life?   Back then, thirty sounded SO old. I was seventeen. The only age I cared about was twenty-one. When I graduating, I didn't really imagine my future. I knew I was going to good old community college, and hoped I'd get myself motivated to go to "real" college and get a degree. I hoped to have a family some day. But that was really all I thought about then. I was more consumed with the present, with trying to play hooky from my waitressing job at a retirement home and partying with my friends. I couldn't wait for Senior Week in Ocean City and being on my own with my friends. Here's how much times have changed... we walked to the payphone every day to call our parents or boyfriends to check in while we were at the beach. No cell phones, no texting, no chatting or messaging on Facebook. No laptops or iPads with Skype.  We used change. To make phone calls. Long distance. It's funny that this is a totally foreign concept to my kids!

So, community college came and took a little longer than it should have. I didn't appreciate the college opportunity at the time and didn't try my hardest. But I eventually got my shit together, graduated CCC and went on to UMBC and got a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. And that waitressing job I didn't really like at the time? Well, I'm glad I stuck with it. After three years of working there, this new cook started in the kitchen. I tried to play it cool when my supervisor introduced us, but I thought he was cute. We worked together for a while before we actually talked to each other. That guy is now my husband of almost ten years. Good call on not quitting that job! We have five beautifully exhausting kids together. Never in my wildest dreams in May of 1997 would I have imagined I'd be a mother of five. Come to think of it, I never imagined having five kids when it was May of 2011 either.

Fifteen years later, life is totally different. It is supposed to be. We can't live in high school forever. I do wish I could get my high school body back though!  In these fifteen years, I've accomplished a lot. I've lived a lot. I've learned a lot. I've loved more than I ever thought possible. I've experienced the excruciating pain of the death of a friend. I've experienced the miracle and joy of bringing a child into the world, five times over. In high school, I never had a boyfriend. I joked to my friends that I would become a nun. Ironically, I was the first one to get married. I was lucky enough to find an amazing man and marry him.  I appreciate and respect my parents so much more than I did when I was younger. I understand why they made decisions they made. I have a much better sense of family now. I know who my true friends are, and that they love me and I love them even if we don't see each other often.

Fifteen years later, I wouldn't trade the time. I wouldn't go back and change my experiences (except maybe the one where I gave up a trip to Hawaii because my boyfriend was going to be home on Spring Break at that time). Talk about a bad decision!! I guess that was a learning experience too. I don't think I'd tell my high school self to do anything differently. I think I needed to go through my experiences on my own to become The person I am today.  I wonder what life will be like in another fifteen years, but I don't want to know for sure. I'm going to hold on and enjoy the ride until we get there. And then I will feel ancient writing about high school thirty years ago!

From riding bikes to driving cars

I took Princess out last night to ride bikes again. She's doing a great job! She's a little scared of riding on the sidewalk, so for now we're sticking to the pool parking lot down the street from our house. Both of us were still working on riding well when we went out last night. We had a good time though, laughing at ourselves getting used to riding our bikes. We even had a few races across the parking lot! I enjoyed the free feeling of riding a bike. It didn't feel as torturous as running. I did not enjoy the way the bike seat hurt my butt. I just assumed that a butt my size would provide better cushioning against a bike seat. Apparently the extra 'junk in the trunk' is for nothing. My butt is still sore today!

As we were riding around the parking lot, a car pulled in and parked near the entrance. The driver and passenger both got out and switched seats. It was a teenage girl and her mom. The girl had been driving and they switched for the mom to get behind the wheel. When they left, I found myself watching their car drive all the way down the street until I couldn't see it anymore. As I watched the car, I thought about how I will be that mom one day and how she was once me. I wondered if she saw the irony in our situations, me with my little girl on a bike, her with her big girl in a car. I immediately thought about how one day, in the not too far off future, I will be taking my little girl out to learn how to drive a car. And that thought terrified me. Not because I'm afraid of her being an awful driver, but because I realized it is inevitable that she is going to grow up.

I thought about how she will drive a car. She will go to high school. She will become independent. She won't need me as much as she does now. Not needing me is the scary part. She will have her own friends and a boyfriend. She will study and work and hang out with friends. She will go to college, she will meet the right guy for her and get married. She will have her own family. All of these things make me sad. Don't get me wrong - I want all of these things for Princess. I want her to be successful and happy and healthy. I want her to find love like I did and have a family of her own. I want her to experience the joy of being a mother and a wife. But at the same time, I don't. I just want her to stay little forever. I want to freeze time and keep her where she is in life. I like that she wants me around, and that she lets me fix her hair and give out snacks when she has a playdate. I like checking her homework and making her lunch. I like knowing where she is every minute of the day and night. I like being able to protect her from the world. I know that I won't always be able to do that.

While I was lost in these thoughts about the future, I heard "Mommy!" from across the parking lot and I snapped back to the present, to my little girl who needed a help getting started so we could race again. She hadn't even noticed the car come into the lot. I blinked back the tears from my eyes and rode over to my girl so we could finish our bike ride. As she was telling me about her day at school, I found myself really listening to what she had to say, because I realized that she won't always want to share every detail of her life with me. For now, I'm going to enjoy it as much as possible, and hope that the future stays distant. And when it comes to her driving a car, this is the only way I want to picture it.


September 2004

March 2005