Graves Family Snapshot, August 2016

Carter's cuteness has reached silly levels.  He is well aware of this fact and the powers that it affords him.  Sometimes he is very obvious with his behavioral modification techniques.  After the parent has acquiesced to his desires he will wait a good amount of time (in order to allow the effect of his charm to grow and appear more sincere) and then hit you with a words of kindness that melt your heart.  Other times, he will get you to do his bidding while you have no clue that he has just played you for a fool.  You'll do it with a smile and pine for an opportunity to please him again.  But the worst part, is when you tell him no.  He freezes in a state of shock while his face slowly morphs into the saddest expression in human history.  This is followed by 2 to 3 full tears falling silently from his left eye and culminates in the sound I imagine killer whales to make when they are separated from their family.  Trust me when I tell you that you do not want to be the cause of this.  Just do what he wants.  You'll feel a lot better about yourself.

So I know it's not uncommon for preschooler's to be quite obsessive.  But it was a little odd when 3-year-old Carter became obsessed with girls.  He rooted for girls on TV shows and video games.  He carried around a small army of female super heroes wherever he went.  He would ask you to tell him stories and sing him songs about Wonder Woman every night.  Let me tell you there is only so much that you can rhyme with lasso of truth and bracelets.  Things reached really bizarre levels when we left our summer vacation to California with some new biblical action figures.  Mindy walked in to find Carter using Wonder Woman to tie up Jesus with the lasso of truth.  I'm hopeful that some big theological questions were settled that day.  And...I'm pretty sure there has to be some sexual fetish implications later in life.  I would say we shall see, but I'm pretty sure that what happens on the invisible plane stays on the invisible plane...

On to Mr. Cameron.  He started first grade last week.  I remember a year ago and how big a deal it was for him to start school.  Now it just feels like old hat.  He has done great at school and I am super proud of him.  It just feels like he is growing up so quickly.  And I feel like we are entering a new stage in our relationship where I get to use him as an excuse to do/buy fun things.  Recently, a California buddy and I decided it was time to introduce our children to the world of real video games.  So we purchased some Play-Station 4's.  But I quickly realized that the world of real video games has had quite a few upgrades since I was in college.  I stared at the magical box for about 2 minutes trying to figure out how to put in the game.  Then I played my first few games with the controller plugged into the unit, before I realized that it had wireless capabilities.  Mind blown.  But I quickly got the hang of it and fell back into form.  And when Cam wandered out of bed at 3 am one morning and caught me still up playing NBA2k I felt a surge of shame that made me feel truly young again.  In all seriousness though, I'm excited for these coming years and getting to re-experience childhood from a new perspective.  And in a conversation with Mindy I would typically follow that poignant remark with something subtle like, "you know the new Madden came out last week."  See what I did there?  But then she caught on and started planning a surprise birthday trip for Cameron to Disneyland. Check mate!

Speaking of aging, it seems that I have definitely passed on my fear of death to both children.  Cameron will randomly bemoan the impending demise of Reilly.  This is an actual quote from Cam.  "One day Reilly will just be running. And then he won't.  Because he'll be dead. (loud sobbing, throw self on bed in dramatic fashion, and scene)."  And this is all said directly in front of Reilly, while he just stares at Cam with a WTF look on his face.  Now Carter has taken up the narrative.  He has started peppering Mindy with questions like, "Who is going to be my mommy when you die?"  Mindy told me her response to this and it sounded very caring and soothing.  She probably should have just said Wonder Woman and been done with it.