The Birthday Maniac...H3 turns 12

Sniff!!...my baby is 12!! AAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh!!! Say it isn't so!! I've told him over and over that he's not allowed to grow up, but does he listen?? Well, just look at that face, and there's your answer. This kid liiiiiiiiiiiiives for birthdays. In blatant disregard of the emotional well being of his poor mother, I might add. Humph! And so......a tribute to Ben, in honor of his birthday.

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All my hooligans, of course, have a special place in my heart, but this particular one just has a special uniqueness. Maybe its a little of that mother-son thing, maybe its because he's my youngest, but this wacky, be-bopping, humming, dancing, drumming,intense, stubborn, other-worldly creature never ceases to amaze, infuriate, frustrate, and delight me. He has definitely taught me to more genuinely appreciate the wide world of sound. He is a true audiophile (don't even know it thats a word)..... a lover of sounds of all kinds. Which drives him to do things like...... this for example.....

Ok, what exactly is he doing here?? Well, this is a new-fangled, high tech street crossing button. It makes a digital sounding click when you press the arrow (maybe for blind people?). He was obviously fascinated with the sound.....but if you'll notice, he's not content with just appreciating the new clicky sound, he has to see what it sounds like from the inside of the pole. So there he is, ear pressed to the pole, mesmerized.......click.......click......click......click.......click......
He's taught me to more fully appreciate the percussive possibilities of all natural and manmade surfaces. The world is his drumpad :o). He discovered buttons....the kind you push....early in life. And, yeah, he knows how to push *those* kind of buttons too. Anyway, his many faults aside, I love watching the intense, uninhibited curiosity that drives him to listen to poles, yell in marble walled office lobbies to hear the echos, jump up and down in elevators as they ascend and descend to see if he feels lighter or heavier, or try out his favorite Hollywood voice tricks in the middle of the mall (to the embarrassment of the hooligan sisters...heh heh). What can I say...I love my goofy hooligan. Happy Birthday Ben!

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Let the Day Begin!!

So H3 began his day by messing around with the photo booth app on the i-mac, a program tailor-made for creative hooligans. Not only can you instantly take your own picture with the built in camera, but you can squish, twist, tweak, zoom, distort......whatever! Ben decided that he wanted a picture of his teeth. Nice teeth Ben.




I decided to surprise Ben with a trip on the Metrolink down to Mark's office. He's been begging to do this for awile, so I decided it would be a fun birthday thing to do. Mark's office building has a McD's on the ground floor, and Ben is virtually the only member of this family that loves McD's. And, being the youngest he is usually outvoted when it comes to such decisions. Anyhoo, he had brief reservations about the train because of the recent ill-fated Metrolink crash, but I put the statistics in perspective for him, we sat in the end train car, and all was well.

Happy H3 on the train!

Ok, here's a slideshow of the rest of the day. As you can see, we ate lunch at McDonalds, then bopped down the street to the Americana, a ritzy shopping area directly across from the Glendale Galleria. The fountain was pretty impressive, and there was actually a fountain show which was very cool. I, of course, was impressed most of all by the 3 story Barnes and Noble, and was mildly disappointed that I couldn't just stay there and wander for the rest of the afternoon....but we had to be on the 2pm train back home, so there you go. All in all, we did a lot of walking....Ben and I wandered down the street before lunch to kill time, then we walked around a bunch after lunch. I was zonked by the time we got home around 3. We let Ben open his presents from us after dinner. Usually we have a party with Grandma and Grandpa and John, Kathy and all, but schedules are really wacky right now, so that may get put off till ??? We'll see. Lets just say H3 isn't as patient as H1 when it comes to birthdays, so I decided we'll just do it in stages. Thus endeth the day.