317th Friday Blog Roundup
The twins and I started reading Harry Potter together. And before you start screaming, “but six is too yoooooooooooooooooooooung” (because this has been screamed at me about 12 times in the past few days), I agree with you if my kids hadn’t been already exposed to the Disney World of Parental Death.
I just don’t see the first book of Harry Potter as appreciably different from letting them see Finding Nemo, and since most of the fear-inducing moments are tucked into the end chapters, we also have the option of ending early. For instance, the twins have now seen the ballet Romeo and Juliet 300 times, and they still don’t know that the kids are going to kick it at the end. When they want to peek into just what goes down in the mausoleum, I’ll continue letting the tape run. Until then, in our world, Juliet is very much alive and dancing.
Watching them process Harry Potter has made me wonder if the book is a drug. I know that it’s my go-to stress read, but it’s also interesting to watch this look of bliss cross over their faces as I read it aloud, as if they’ve taken a particularly nice drag off of a joint. And maybe it’s seeing that bliss and not fear that tells me that they’re ready for this book.
I have started to keep a running list of their questions and commentary, since I know they’ll want it when they’re 87-years-old and I allow them to read Book 7 (I’m fine with book 1 right now, but we’re not touching book 4 and on until they’re past elementary school but which I mean, entering the nursing home years which is about the same time that I’ll finally allow them to date).
The ChickieNob has already wondered if perhaps Voldemort mistakenly gripped the wrong end of his wand when he tried to curse Harry, shooting the curse on himself. When I informed her that it was actually love protecting Harry, she smiled politely and said, “I think we should wait and see if I’m right about Voldemort just holding the wand wrong.”
The Wolvog, meanwhile, always the good Jew, wanted to know what sort of bacon Harry was frying up for Dudley’s breakfast. Was it veggie bacon, or was it that other kind? You know, just in case Harry popped out of the pages and invited him into the book for a nice brekkie.
But the most pressing question: why doesn’t JK Rowling describe what the inside of brick looks like when they’re going onto Platform 9 3/4? Doesn’t she understand that the world (or, at least the ChickieNob) has been waiting forever to know what brick looks like on the inside and here was a missed opportunity to inform us?
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One of the drawbacks to doing the Creme de la Creme is that my mind is always off to somewhere else in the year, and I miss everything happening in the blogosphere now.
Therefore, I apologize if something huge happens and I read the post two weeks later or miss it entirely. Take pity on me and if something huge is happening, email me.
That said, it really rocks to know as you sit down to read that everything you’re going to read is going to be amazing. I mean, if I’m in my Google Reader, some things grab me, some things don’t. But in the Creme de la Creme spreadsheet? Everything is thought-provoking or emotional.
Oh, and this message also serves as your reminder to take some time this weekend to pick your post and submit it. December 15th is the last day to submit where you get the guarantee that you’ll be up on January 1st (everything submitted after December 15th will go up, but it will take time).
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The Weekly What If: What if you had to be married to someone famous (living or currently-dead-but-not-dead-for-the-sake-of-this-question) and easily recognizable, who would you want it to be? Consider the attention that person would get from fans that you’d have to contend with, how their fame would impact your life, etc.
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And now, the blogs…
Built in Birth Control has a post titled “You May Not Understand” about the nurse turning off the monitor when the staff knew that she was going to lose Ayla and Juliet. She painfully writes, “i felt my girls kick and bubble and turn. how could i tell them it was their last day, their last hurrah? why did i have to let them go so easily? you would think the one thing in the world you would be able to, absolutely need to do is fight for your childrens’ lives, right? i should have been able to motherfucking fight.” A deeply emotional and beautiful post.
Another sad one — Magnolia Queen has a post about her unfulfilled due date which fell this week. She muses on the idea of whether someone is a mother if her child “never made it into their arms.” It is about asking for someone to be counted, to have their existence recognized and honoured.
A Second Line started peeing on sticks one day after transfer. She admits: “I just seem to be going through the motions like a robot, and don’t feel in control of my own actions.” But really, you’re going to have to click over to see what the parrot did to the stick (and I like her mindset of letting her impulses guide her for the time being).
Lastly, I end with a bit of happiness from The Journey to Baby G. She describes infertility swallowing all of her other thoughts as “our trouble TTC situation had begun to eclipse all other parts of my life in recent months until it seemed to swallow everything else up and was the only thing left, standing at attention in the middle of the room, our unborn children occupying all of my thoughts and dreams, just begging to be conceived.” Where she finds joy is unexpected, but it’s also the fact that she can recognize that unexpected joy and what it means to how much she has held on to who she is in this process.
The roundup to the Roundup: We’re reading Harry Potter. I’m waist-deep in the Creme de la Creme. Answer the Weekly What If. And lots of great posts to read.
14 comments
I would marry Michael Crawford in a second AND let him eat crackers in the bed.
Also, I had a dream last night that my mother in law was suing me for custody of Jack because I let Janson watch/read Harry Potter. Harry Rocks! 🙂
Hahahaha – your children are very entertaining. I hope I remember this when Chickienob is running the universe and I have the misfortune to disagree with her!
I wouldn’t want to be married to someone famous. All that attention would be annoying.
The first 15 minutes of Finding Nemo really are frightening. I made the mistake of letting the twins watch it a few months ago, when they were just shy of 2. Both burst into tears. The DVD was promptly banished to the basement. But just this morning I saw the movie on a list of stocking stuffers for toddlers, because kids “love the bright colors”!
Also, nothing in the Harry Potter books was as terrifying as the dog hanging scene in B.abe 2: P.ig in the C.ity (which we watched long before TTC, so I only had to calm my husband).
I can’t marry a famous person. I’d be much too impatient with them. 😉 And I don’t think Harry Potter (at least Book 1) is out of reach for 6 year olds … one of my son’s friends also started reading it this summer, and she’s done fine with it. They *do* ask some pretty interesting questions at that age!! 🙂
Okay, I seriously have to get on the HP train… I haven’t read any of the series or even seen one of the movies! And I love books that feel like drugs, haha.
As far as being married to a famous person – that is a tough one… The first person that comes to mind is Joe Thorton – he’s a hockey player for the San Jose Sharks – But I don’t think I could be married to anyone who was gone for long periods of time. So maybe a writer? I don’t know…
I think you are just fine letting the kids read Harry Potter. They are fantastic books.
Oh, that’s easy. I’d kick Yoko to the curb and take up with John Lennon. It’s already happened several times in dreams I’ve had, and John and I are highly compatible. The groupies can suck it, ‘cos John and I are just soooo in tune.
At least we are in my dreams. I’ve only ever had two celebrities who have featured in my dreams, and one was Lennon, the other was Michael Stipe. And Dream Michael was fun to fool around with, but was terrible husband material; Dream John was the kind to ask how my day was and actually listen to the answer. Sigh.
(Weirdly, I just felt the urge to quote my Beatle friend on my blog today… random… )
This will probably seem a little crazy, but I’m all about embracing my hidden dork…if I could choose 1 celebrity to marry, it would be Adam Sandler. I think he’d always keep me laughing, he seems pretty low-key about his fame and in his recent string of movies (Spanglish, Grown Ups) I’ve found him to be cute in a goofy, endearing sort of way.
I cannot wait to read HP to my children! I think the only people who can decide when a child is ready are his parents; some kids can handle it at 6 (i’m actually hoping for 5) and others might need another year or two.
wow to click over here to read and see my blog/post listed? the post i got out of bed at 12 am to write because more of me was in that hospital room than in my own bed?
ive been sobbing for like 20 minutes. thank you, mel for your kind words.
i saw my hairdresser today, the same ive been with 14 years. she lost her little boy to SIDS two months after he was born and five months after my girls. normally we sit and comfort a bit, cry a bit. we let the conversation go where it needs to for each of us. we don’t try to rush each other to happier thoughts or change the conversation. we are allowed to live in our grief, talk the language. when we are together, we have a voice.
thank you for giving so many a voice here. we don’t all get to be our true selves or say what we need to say in our daily lives. the truth is, we are changed now. we have emotional needs that others don’t even know exist and to be able to communicate with each other is priceless. thank you for taking on the role of conduit.
i need to think about this question when i have a clearer head. i hope you and yours are enjoying chocolate cherry bread and those doughnuts i can’t spell 🙂
xoxo
lis
okay i thought about it and i say johnny depp. not just because he is gorgeous, but he seems to be a great guy, lives overseas and is fairly out of the public eye. and i LOVE his comments he made last week about disney and the way he played his pirates of the carribean character.
Bruce Springsteen. : ) I had a dream once where he was skinnydipping in my swimming pool. I don’t have a swimming pool, let alone one with Bruce skinnydipping in it, but it was nice while it lasted, lol. I would love to be in half the shape he’s in when I’m 60.
There IS something drug-like about HP. I got hooked on it at the ripe old age of, um, 20-something. Then I showed the first book to my mom and got HER hooked on. Then I started describing major plot points to my man-person, and HE’s hooked on it.
The movies are being re-run today and my man-person has to put everything down and stop everything he’s doing (including eating the nice dinner I made him – sniff!) to watch the movies.
He did mention that Hogwarts is like the school everybody wishes they could have gone to. Maybe that’s part of it!
Thank you Mel for mentioning my blog in this post, even if it was to point out how utterly crazy my mind has become after the transfer! Just kidding. I really do appreciate it when others actually read what I’m posting, I am still not used to that concept, so it was a very nice surprise, thanks again!
Ok, but recently I was having a discussion in which I put forward the opinion that the HP movies should be reserved for older children than the books. In the books you can pause, explain, gloss over or skim, or simply edit. And the children’s imaginations have to provide half the fare. Not so in the movies.
Six doesn’t sound that young to read 1-3, though, if they’ve got the attention spans. The themes aren’t really scarier than Oliver Twist, are they?
Bea