When I sat and held Buster as he passed away and then did the same for Max, I said I’d never do it again. I had been trying to write this for a week now and I couldn’t figure out exactly what to say, but then I read Stephanie’s post and realized I didn’t need to write anything, because she already said it so perfectly.
“You never know after losing a pet when you will be ready to replace them. It’s been 1.5 years since Buster and almost 1 year since Max. Once we saw this girl we knew it was time ❤️. We surprised the kids with a road trip to Maryland and they had no idea! When we finally met Wednesday Jax said he was so happy that he was confused why he was crying! Oliver has called her Buster at least a half dozen times… then again he’s also called her ‘Girl and Sunday’ ❤️ We will always remember Buster and Max, but we are ready to make new memories 🐶”
As I lay next to you on the eve of your sixth birthday (mind you, I wrote “fifth birthday” two different times already in this blog and I’m not even two sentences in) I can not believe how fast you are growing up. Writing tonight, one handed as you hold my other hand tightly in yours is tough, but worth every second. I know that the years continue to fly by so I continue to remind myself to relish in every second I get to spend with you.
This year you took on three new major challenges: basketball, football and kindergarten and have taken them on like you do everything in your life… with: energy, enthusiasm and with an all out CraZy passion that is unmatched by anyone I’ve ever met. It doesn’t matter if it’s running a new play as the quarterback (and remembering to stop running when the whistle blows), dribbling the length of the court for red-light green-light at basketball practice, or accessing the regulation station for an extra recess, your love for whatever you do is inspiring.
You are reading and writing and are so proud of yourself every time you come home from school. You make new friends where ever you go and see the world through rose colored glasses, but still know right from wrong and are not afraid to speak up for what you believe in (especially when that belief is advocating for chocolate instead of vegetables at dinner).
I know this year will continue to bring amazing things for you. I’m sure sometime in late May or early June you will set the World Record for consecutive days eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I’m positive you will read your first full book on your own, you’ll continue to take sports head on. But mostly, I want you to just keep having fun.
There’s plenty of time to find your niche, and I’m confident you will, but for now, just keep doing you… Creeper Face and all!
In a world that so often focuses on the negative, it can be exhausting trying to be a positive for so many people. Sometimes, a kind act, even a small one can be the one time someone smiles on a particular day. The very definition of a random act of kindness is when you do something unexpected, thoughtful, or helpful without expecting anything in return.
Today was the day I needed a random act of kindness to remind me how good the world can be. Today was even better considering that particular act of kindness was initiated by my older son and directed towards his younger brother… it was completely unsolicited, unprovoked and even better un-observed… (or so he thought).
As an aside, I recently read an amazing book, The Kindness Advantage: Cultivating Compassionate and Connected Children. The book was mentioned by my amazing school social worker and a few parents had even discussed it at a recent PTO meeting. So, I decided to check it out. The focus on values of community, compassion, and tolerance are themes that will resonate with any educator.
With increased concern about meanness and bullying, I was impressed with how simply the authors discuss how kindness spreads. Also, described is how children who not only expience others being kind, but those who demonstrate kindness are more apt to also show unity, respect, empathy and compassion for others. As a school leader and parent anything that supports a climate of respect and rapport is something useful that can be taught and also benefit the environment in a classroom and at home.
So, as I stood silently, just beyond the small crack in the bedroom door, I watched my eight year old finish reading a book to his younger brother. As he tucked him in, he whispered just barely audible, “Good night buddy. I’m proud that you are my brother. Thank you for coming into my life.” You see sometimes, kindness isn’t just for the person giving, or even for the person receiving. Often times it’s for the person observing.
Today, one random act of kindness filled three buckets and left this dad smiling from ear to ear.
No way did we get this much stuff when we were kids!
Don’t get me wrong. Santa hooked me up every year and we never went wanting, but I remember getting a WWF Wrestling Buddy, a 1987 Topps factory set and a Rickey Henderson autograph and I literally thought Santa went broke just on our Christmas presents every year!!!.
PS: the single greatest XMAS present ever given to any child:
Pizza Rat is an internet sensation based of of the most famous NYC rat since splinter taught those crazy turtles karate. The thing is… how can this brown rat carrying a slice of pizza down the steps of a New York City Subway station in Manhattan be any cuter than our very own (above) pizza rat?!????
Continuing with tradition (for the eighth year in a row) I tweeted at JK Rowling for advice in dropping the boys off at Platform 9 3/4.
I’m sure by now you know that September 1st is a sacred day for witches and wizards everywhere! Back to Hogwarts Day is when the Wizarding World boards the Hogwarts Express from King’s Cross Station heading to Hogwarts.
The hope being JK herself will acknowledge my tweet and show some love to two little wizards who have the unfortunate luck of being born to the biggest Harry Potter fan this side of Privet Drive.
This dude right here is about to embark on a magical journey, in other words:
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip That started from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship.
There’s no doubt that this little guy isn’t so little anymore and all joking aside, if kindergarten orientation is any indication of how this school year is going to go, sign me up for the Gilligan Island’s Theme Song, because Oliver and his preschool now kindergarten friends are going to cause all sorts of high jinx!
This blog entry will Chronicle (pun intended) a father and son’s continuation of the first time reading the Harry Potter series together. We finished Book One, Two and Three now will move onto Book Four: Harry Potter and the the Goblet of Fire. I’ll update it after each chapter so that I can capture the most memorable moments. Come back often and check in on our progress and leave us a note or some feedback!
I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I know Jax and I will.
Chapter 1: The Riddle House
(The first few chapters Jax asked if he could “talk to text” his summary of the chapter. Why not, right?)
“I was reading the chapter 1 the Riddle House and I was wondering what going to happen right away. So, when my dad read me the first page it made me, kind of like happy and then I thought this book was going to be good, but then the next page made me kind of suspicious about what this chapter might tell us.”
“So, we read on the next page that all the Riddle family were all killed by something and I thought it was the gardener Frank that takes care of their house when they’re gone.”
“Everyone in the town thought he killed them too, so they arrested him and then were like, ‘you’re innocent and you didn’t do anything,” so they let him go!”
“One night after getting out of jail, Frank woke up and the lights were on in the house and there were people jumping around the house. He was like those ‘darn kids again’ he thought. So, he went to the house and it wasn’t kids. There was a fire and then he went upstairs; he looked inside a small opening of a door in a bedroom. He looked and he saw a weird man that had his face covered and also a man that looked very old and looks and sounds like a rat. (We met them in the last book… The Prisoner of Azkaban… Peter Pettigrew.”
“Then a weird snake walked into the door and then the strange man that had the hood on said, ‘how are you doing Nagini’. (Nagini was the snake)… so Nagini, who was now in the room told the man with the hood that there was somebody waiting outside listening to all they were talking about. Then the man opens the door and said, ‘come in man’.”
“So Frank walked inside and then what he saw was the last thing he ever saw in his life… a GRREN FLASH!!!!! And then just like that, he’s laying on the ground, dead.”
“DEAD AS EVER!!!!”
Chapter 2: The Scar
Yes, we did HP newborn photos and added a scar
“So Harry woke up with a SCREAM and was YELLING. The Dursley‘s were banging on the wall and telling him to… like, ‘shut up’ and he woke up and his Scar was burning more than ever!”
“When he woke up, he found a strange bird, he opened the window and found the bird was from Sirius Black! The letter said, ‘Hello Harry, I hope you’re having a good time, but I also know you aren’t really having a good time, because the stupid Dursley‘s are really rude to you.’”
“So, then Henry sent a note back that said, ‘Yeah I’m doing a little bit fine. But, my Aunt Petunia found Dudley smuggling donuts in his room yesterday. He’s on a diet so they took away his money and he threw his PlayStation out the window. Also, my Scar hurts really, really bad!’”
Chapter 3: The Invitation
(For clarification purposes we are still in Jax-Talk-to-Text summary mode)
“Not much really happens in this chapter, but I can tell you a little bit… So in Chapter 3 the Invitation, Harry got a letter in the mail from Ron that had about 38 stamps on it and there was just a little bit of writing in the middle. It said, ‘Harry we’re gonna come and pick you up to bring you to the Quidditch World Cup.’”
Chapter 4: Back to the Burrow
“Harry woke up on a simple morning same as always, went downstairs and Petunia and Vernon commanded him to make breakfast. So it was a normal morning until they heard something and the flames in the fireplace turned green, it was hotter and hotter in the room, he heard a whoosh, they saw legs… then they heard something that sounded like the Weasleys.”
“They were stuck in the fireplace! Mr. Weasley destroyed everything they were crumbs everywhere from the fireplace. Out spilled Mr. Weasley, Ron and the two twins Fred and George (you can’t tell them apart)!”
“As they were leaving Fred and George accidentally dropped some kind of magic candy. Dudley ate the candy one by one. Dudley ate all the candy and then his tongue grew 100 pounds! And the Dursleys were freaking out!!!”
Chapter 5: Weasley Wizard Wheezes
The future Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes
“Fred and George (the two twins), they love, love, love… (like, you can say love one million times????) love jokes. They once played a joke on their mother and they make fake wands and fart bombs. So now they decided to make a joke shop.”
Chapter 6: The Portkey
(Back to you’re regularly scheduled summary of chapter by chapter)
“…Portkeys. They’re objects that are used to transport wizards from one spot to another at a prearranged time.”
Jax: “So dad, if anything can be a Portkey… can we use your weights from the basement, it’s not like you use them anyway!”
Chapter 7: Bagman and Crouch
We’re getting to the point in the story where we are meeting so many new and IMPORTANT characters… it’s hard to keep track of them. But most of all, they’re all suspects!
“Dad, this Crouch guy doesn’t seem to be all that trustworthy! Look at his mustache, very creepy!!!”
Chapter 8: The Quidditch World Cup
“So… Krum is like Aaron Judge of Quidditch!???”
Chapter 9: The Dark Mark
As we read the chapter Jax is starting to worry about the book a bit… it’s starting to get a bit dark and now that we meet actual Death Eaters and see the Dark Mark, “Dad, THE DARK MARK IS A SNAKE!!??!!… Syltherin?!?!!!” Things in the Wizarding World and Chapter by Chapter are getting real!
Chapter 10: Mayhem at the Ministry
This chapter is a bit of a quiet one compared to the last couple. I have to be honest, it took us a couple of nights to get through this one! 💤💤
Chapter 11: Aboard the Hogwarts Express
Thanks to this chapter, every time I ask Jax to take out the trash… I’m confident he’s going to go all Karate Kid on the garbage cans. of course he found this hilarious.
Chapter 12: The Triwizard Tournament
Dumbledore announces the Triwizard Tournament and we are ready to win! It’s pretty obvious from the title, but we are at the point where Jax realizes that if something is going to go wrong in these books, it’s going to involve Harry!!!
Chapter 13: Mad-Eye Moody
This is one of the chapters that I’m so excited to watch with Jax in the movie! When Malfoy attacks Harry, but Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret is one of the only scenes that’s better in video form!!!
Chapter 14: The Unforgivable Curses
Another chapter filling in lots of details and setting the stage for a lot of things to come. Interestingly, we talk a lot about the Unforgivable Curses.
“Why would anyone use them?”
“Avada Kedavra—— that’s what Voldemort used in Harry!!!”
“Cruciatus? Those are the things mom puts in her salad right?” (He says with a smile, knowing he’s now trying to be funny!)
Chapter 15: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
“There’s way too much homework at Hogwarts!” Jax apparently isn’t a fan of homework?!??
Interestingly, Jax doesn’t pay much attention to Edward (I mean Cedric)…
Chapter 16: The Goblet of Fire
Dumbledore introduces the Goblet of Fire to the students and explains that those who wish to enter the Tournament should place their name on a slip of paper inside the goblet; he adds that he has drawn an age line around its perimeter, meaning that no one under the age of seventeen can approach.
Jax is fascinated by the age line and can’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t just tie something heavy to piece of paper with their name on it and throw it from behind the age line into the Goblet of Fire… (Hey Jax, maybe you should have told that to Fred and George before they tried an aging potion)!
“Dad, can’t they just ask someone older to drop their name in for them?!?? (Again, pretty good critical thinking Jax).
Jax face when Harry’s name came out of the Goblet:
Chapter 17: The Four Champions
Professor Dumbledore sends Harry into the back room. Everyone is like, “what?!?? Well that’s new!”
They are trying to find out who put his name in the Goblet of Fire. Jax thinks Malfoy did it because, “he’s a jerk,” but then remembers he’s not old enough… so changes his mind and says maybe it was Dumbledore.
Chapter 18: The Weighing of the Wands
Jealousy is such a deep rooted and higher level consciousness. I can’t expect Jax (a third grader to pick up on the subtleties of jealousy in a friendship that is in a book.
Then again…
“Ron is so mad!!! He thinks Harry snuck his name in the Goblet of Fire!!!” (Then again he’s still stuck on the fact that the Twins turned into old men!)
Chapter 19: The Hungarian Horntail
Jax has just about had it with Rita Skeeter at this point.
Jax is also becoming slightly obsessed with where Bertha Jorkins is. Sirius says that she was last seen in Albania, oddly enough, where Voldemort was last sighted. “That’s it, she’s done for! I know Voldemort had to have killed her…!!!”
Chapter 20: The First Task
We read this chapter as Jax holds his wand (he’s confident that he knows the spell to beat the dragon).
Chapter 21: The House-Elf Liberation Front
I’m not going to exaggerate to make this chapter by chapter something it isn’t. Jax is secretly happy Harry and Ron are friends again. But we struggled through this chapter and considering how unbelievably exciting the chapter before was, that’s not surprising here.
Chapter 22: The Unexpected Task
They needed to find people to go to the ball with. Harry decided to go with Cho Vhamg but she was already going with Cedric Difgiey. Then he found out he needed to dance with a girl. I would NOT want to dance with a girl at the dance (well except my “girl” friend ____.
Chapter 23: The Yule Ball
When Dobby wakes Harry up and gives Harry his present: a pair of mismatched socks he made himself I asked Jax why he thinks Dobby is so obsessed with socks.
He said to me that it’s obvious, “Socks set him free!”
He then turns to me and says (deadpan), did someone set you free with sneakers?
Fun Fact: Lucious Malfoy gave me my first pair of Jordans
Chapter 24: Rita Skeeter’s Scoop
Empathy is such an important trait that so many people lack. I’m watching Jackson empathize with characters in this series. Rita Skeeter writes a defamatory article about Hagrid and Jax becomes quiet for a little while (anyone who knows him, knows that this happens very infrequently). A few minutes later he asks me, “why there are so many mean people in the world.”
Chapter 25: The Egg and the Eye
After reading this chapter we are now apparently ordering a hot tub and tons of scented and colored bath bombs!
Chapter 26: The Second Task
Jax: “Dad what’s a Grindylow?”
Me: “Grindylows are very aggressive water demons known to live in the Black Lake at Hogwarts. Or in other wards, you and your brother when I’m trying to relax in the pool.”
Chapter 27: Padfoot Returns
Jax quotes this chapter:
“Wait so everyone loves Ron now?!?”
“Rita skeeter sucks!”
“I knew Barry Crouch, Sr was a bad guy!!!”
Answers:
Yup
Yup (PS don’t say that something sucks).
Yes, sort of. But, well… keep reading.
POSTSCRIPT: Also, click here for our other alouds:
Sorry Son: Chronicles of a New Dad 