Ever since Kyle, our extraordinary grandson, was born, we have noticed that he has always been ahead of his age in strength and intelligence. I know, I know...everyone thinks that their grandchildren are exceptional....and that's the way it should be, because they are! It's just that Kyle seems to be able to do things that most children his age and size wouldn't and shouldn't normally be able to do. The other night he moved his rocking chair in front of the television so he could see better....this isn't just any child's rocking chair, it's very sturdy, a bit larger than most and very heavy. I have trouble moving it when I vacuum. Not that I can't...but I don't pick it up and move it a couple feet off the ground...it's more like an elevated scoot. Kyle, though grunting a bit while doing so, moved it a few feet from where it was sitting to a place in front of the Television. Since he's only 2 and almost 1/2 I was amazed!! I am amazed at a lot of thing; many of them are not Kyle related.....and not all of them are amazing in an awestruck kind of way. For instance, I am amazed at many drivers in this area! Some of them couldn't figure out how a 4-way stop works if their life depended on it...of course some of them can't figure out how stop lights work either!
Tonight Crystal came home from a birthday party for one of our friend's son who is turning 2. Kyle had gotten a Kazoo at this party...and was serenading us as he came through the door. I didn't pay much attention at first to what he had, until he came upstairs to say hi and starting playing his kazoo. Now I know that a Kazoo is simply an instrument that magnifies your own voice and adds a buzzing sound to it (which many people find more annoying than anything)....but it can work really well if it's done right....and by right I mean if it's done at all. He had figured out how to use this instrument and while you wouldn't think that it's that difficult, you'd be surprised at how many school age children who can't figure out how to make them work. I am referring to the time I worked in another building in the after school care program in which the children were given prizes for games like Bingo or rewards for various things that they should be doing just because it is a reasonable expectation of them. I am talking things like cleaning up after themselves when they make a mess...such as eating their snacks....sweeping up their own mess should not merit a reward.....it's called being responsible for your own actions....cleaning up a game and putting it away should not merit a reward.....in our house, if you don't clean it up you don't play with it the next time...there's the reward....you get to play with it again! It should be a given...you make a mess, you clean it up! Rewards should be given to children who do things that are above and beyond what is expected! If a child is told to clean up a mess they themselves made and they immediately ask, "Can I get something from the prize box?" There is a problem...you might just as well reward them for making the mess to begin with...
"Oh look Jimmy....you made a mess...WOW! and what a fine mess it is, you just go and get yourself something from the prize box, because that's an award winning mess if I ever saw one...and while you are at it, pick out something for breathing too...because you are just so darn good at it!"
Of course, when Jimmy goes to get a prize from the box, he can't figure out what to get because he's already gotten several of each item in there for various messes he made, cleaned up and good breathing, but eventually he digs to the bottom of the box and finds a couple of kazoos that either had been added because they were found in a cupboard somewhere or no one else wanted them, mostly because they were "broken". It amazes me how many kids returned the kazoos because they were defective....yep....they blew into them and they didn't make any noise..so they must be broken. When told how they actually work, some will take them, but most don't because finding out you have to add your own audio is just to much work! Imagine the same kids who can't be quiet when the request to do so is given, to the point of having to blow a whistle to bring some kind of order to the room, finds a kazoo and the need to manually add your own audio to make it work is just too much effort! To be honest, some of them just can't coordinate making noise and blowing at the same time! Oh, but if they ever do we would have to give them another prize, because the effort of manually making a toy work is just so above and beyond what they should have to expect from a toy...even a toy that was given to them for breathing in and out to begin with! I am not saying kids are dumb.....on the contrary....they are probably so smart that a kazoo is just to primitive for them. But isn't it sad that we have become a society of rewarding people/kids for things that should just be common practice. We have taken the reward of clapping for our toddler children when they accomplish something noteworthy way past the limits and we haven't stopped as they get older. Thus, I give you the "ME" generation! Probably explains why no one wants to wait their turn at stop signs...Ironically, they were probably the kid in school who whined the most about other kids "Cutting" them in line!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
To Sing or not To Sing....that was the question, among others!
I don't know if you have ever felt like you walked into a parallel universe, but it happened to us and some friends last weekend. There were 8 of us who wanted to go to one of our newest usual spots to do Karaoke last Saturday night. We arrived in time to eat and then planned to stay for Karaoke, but as it turned out, The manager made the decision to suspend Karaoke for the evening for "The Game." Now to us, "The Game" meant Notre Dame was playing, however, a few miles up the road, which is where we were, "The Game" meant Michigan was playing! So......3 out of 8 of us had smart phones and were frantically looking up places that might have Karaoke.... none of them seemed to be having much luck! UNTIL....Steve remembered seeing this little hole-in-the wall place, the neighborhood bar if you will, that had Karaoke 6 nights a week. So.....6 of us decided to check it out, after we ate. We couldn't be rude and just have soft drinks and water then up and leave....even if they did leave us high and dry on Karaoke...it just wouldn't be right.
With Dinner over with we headed up the road to the neighboring town on a quest for Karaoke! We found the little place and finally got parked and went inside. Of course, we couldn't help but notice the little crowd outside the building and I verbalized to Jon that it might be a good idea to go take the face plate off of my car stereo! He disagreed.....and this was one of those rare moments that I decided not to go back and do it myself! As we entered the place it was like stepping into a time warp of some sort. Seating was in an L shape sort of, with a pool table in one corner. The tables were all pushed together in rows for the most part so we politely inquired of some people at one end of a table facing the Karaoke stage if we might share the other end of the table. Once we worked out the seating Steve was ready to jump right up and put our names on the list to sing. I am not usually timid about that, except in the case where you have obviously crashed a party that goes on 6 nights a week and all eyes are on you wondering where you came from and how the heck did you end up here....and furthermore whatever possessed you to come inside!? Oh wait...part of those thoughts were mine! I felt like a teenager again.....like I was going to some forbidden place that I might get into trouble for.....but this time my parents knew about it and let's face it...I am well past the age of having to report to my parents. Oh I forgot to mention that there was a black light on the ceiling...and of course, we had to notice that Jon's shoe laces on his new shoes were glowing, as was the white part of the design on Cheryl's shirt. I did notice that the pages in the karaoke book glowed as well making really easy to read the song listings.
I usually like to listen to the music that people are doing if I enter a place that has karaoke already in progress....just to see what kind of music they are into, but it didn't take long to figure out that the chosen genre was "Country" and not just Country, but "Old Country". I almost expected Patsy Cline to come out of the ladies room....with Loretta Lynn right behind her...and while Patsy did not make an appearance, one lady did her own rendition of "Sweet Dreams" and it was pretty darn close to the real thing. Now our usual observation in Karaoke is that even with a large crowd, only a percentage of the people actually sing, but not in this case.....I would say over half the people in that little place sang...not only did they sing...but most of them sang rather well; a pleasant surprise I might add. I was still feeling a little weird though and all I kept thinking about was the song "Hotel California" not that I wanted to sing it, I was just feeling like we might be living it! You know.....like the little Karaoke bar that time forgot.....or some ancient buried city that you have to accidentally stumble across....only we did it on purpose....which makes it more like "Hotel California." But much to our surprise, the people, who obviously knew everyone else there except for us, were very friendly and they love to sing Karaoke as much as we do, and oddly enough their language and their actions were less offensive than some we have encountered in our usual places that are more up to date and close to home, which was another pleasant surprise!
At some point in the evening the music did a 180 and turned to Rock! They were now singing stuff like "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.....but there were some that did not deviate from Country.
I don't know what these people's stories are, what their lives are like, but they like to sing...a lot..and with 6 days a week to practice it was probably one of the best kept secret little Karaoke hideaways......but now we know about them! We probably won't venture that far from home on a regular basis, but we have another option when our usual places let us down! Especially now that we know that not only can we go in, but we can leave anytime we want!
With Dinner over with we headed up the road to the neighboring town on a quest for Karaoke! We found the little place and finally got parked and went inside. Of course, we couldn't help but notice the little crowd outside the building and I verbalized to Jon that it might be a good idea to go take the face plate off of my car stereo! He disagreed.....and this was one of those rare moments that I decided not to go back and do it myself! As we entered the place it was like stepping into a time warp of some sort. Seating was in an L shape sort of, with a pool table in one corner. The tables were all pushed together in rows for the most part so we politely inquired of some people at one end of a table facing the Karaoke stage if we might share the other end of the table. Once we worked out the seating Steve was ready to jump right up and put our names on the list to sing. I am not usually timid about that, except in the case where you have obviously crashed a party that goes on 6 nights a week and all eyes are on you wondering where you came from and how the heck did you end up here....and furthermore whatever possessed you to come inside!? Oh wait...part of those thoughts were mine! I felt like a teenager again.....like I was going to some forbidden place that I might get into trouble for.....but this time my parents knew about it and let's face it...I am well past the age of having to report to my parents. Oh I forgot to mention that there was a black light on the ceiling...and of course, we had to notice that Jon's shoe laces on his new shoes were glowing, as was the white part of the design on Cheryl's shirt. I did notice that the pages in the karaoke book glowed as well making really easy to read the song listings.
I usually like to listen to the music that people are doing if I enter a place that has karaoke already in progress....just to see what kind of music they are into, but it didn't take long to figure out that the chosen genre was "Country" and not just Country, but "Old Country". I almost expected Patsy Cline to come out of the ladies room....with Loretta Lynn right behind her...and while Patsy did not make an appearance, one lady did her own rendition of "Sweet Dreams" and it was pretty darn close to the real thing. Now our usual observation in Karaoke is that even with a large crowd, only a percentage of the people actually sing, but not in this case.....I would say over half the people in that little place sang...not only did they sing...but most of them sang rather well; a pleasant surprise I might add. I was still feeling a little weird though and all I kept thinking about was the song "Hotel California" not that I wanted to sing it, I was just feeling like we might be living it! You know.....like the little Karaoke bar that time forgot.....or some ancient buried city that you have to accidentally stumble across....only we did it on purpose....which makes it more like "Hotel California." But much to our surprise, the people, who obviously knew everyone else there except for us, were very friendly and they love to sing Karaoke as much as we do, and oddly enough their language and their actions were less offensive than some we have encountered in our usual places that are more up to date and close to home, which was another pleasant surprise!
At some point in the evening the music did a 180 and turned to Rock! They were now singing stuff like "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.....but there were some that did not deviate from Country.
I don't know what these people's stories are, what their lives are like, but they like to sing...a lot..and with 6 days a week to practice it was probably one of the best kept secret little Karaoke hideaways......but now we know about them! We probably won't venture that far from home on a regular basis, but we have another option when our usual places let us down! Especially now that we know that not only can we go in, but we can leave anytime we want!
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