One of the reasons I’ve been lagging on posting this past week is that I was getting ready for our town’s annual Christmas parade. My boy and I have been rolling with the local bike posse in the parade every year since he was 2 (he’s 10 now). I used to tow a modified kid trailer with a drum set on it, and he would pound away as we rolled through our quaint downtown amid a steady stream of screams of “MISSSTERRRR COWWWWWARRRRDDDDD!” from the sidelines.
Parade entries look a lot groovier at night.
But for the past couple of years, he’s been playing the trumpet in the school band, so I switched the trailer to more of a throne/rickshaw setup, and we roll with him riffing on “Jingle Bells” and “Old Saint Nick” from the rolling lawnchair.
Well, they used footage of us from last year’s parade in the local commercial advertising this year’s parade. So for this whole past week, I’ve been getting the “I SAW you,” line from all sides.
We were talking about it in one class on Friday (the parade was that night) and one boy suddenly (finally) picked up on the fact that I had a son.
“You’re a parent?!” He was flabbergasted.
Before I could do anything except rub the bridge of my nose in exasperation while the other kids laughed, another kid whom I have been battling with all year (current grade: 16%, IQ: top quarter of my kids, Attention span: 45 seconds) interjects,
“Duh. Why do you think he’s so strict and cool both?”
I couldn’t have made up a nicer compliment myself. Sniff.
Here’s a video. The boy and I appear @ 1:04.
