<p>SJTH - you must be SOOO proud, congrats!!! I will be first in line to buy a ticket to your son’s performance at the Rochester Jazz Fest let’s say 6 years or so from now!!!</p>
<p>Mythmom - I have dibs on the cannolis!</p>
<p>I just love those rivalry shirts - I have one like Karen’s that says “Lehigh” on front and “because not everyone can get into Lafayette” on the back. Can’t fit into it anymore so I might just give it to D’s classmate that is going to the old Alma Mater…</p>
<p>On that note - I am glad that we saved the various goodies that schools sent D through the whole process -a lot of the shirts, decals, etc can be given away to classmates that are going to those schools…</p>
<p>Our boys enjoyed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Our Australian Shepherd dog was named Ninja by the boys (Ninja Owns the Night was his full registered name, which I came up with and thought made him more of a real ninja). He was almost all black.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for the congrats! I love hearing about what everyone’s kids were “into.” Don’t you feel like this was just yesterday!!! I was telling my boys recently how easy it was to “do” Christmas stockings and Easter baskets for them then–a packet of Pokemon cards, a balsa wood glider, a yo-yo and we were dang good. Now what is there??! I did put one of those cap grenades into their easter baskets (ok I still do it) this year…and they played with them!</p>
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Congratulations to your son! Wow! Is your son staying on the waitlist of his first choice school? If so, I’m sure he will be sending him the magazine? (And if not, maybe he could send them an e-mail, just so they know their poor decisionmaking skills?)</p>
<p>Historymom: Good fortune to your D on Scripps! It is at the top of my DD list, and will probably stay there, althought she is more like a female version of Mars than Athena.
Would be nice if your D was there if my D manages to get in.</p>
That was mathson! We used to watch the trains at the local station and the guys would blow the horn for him and he’d wave. Then he discovered computers at six and never looked back… And although he’s not Aspie - he’s close - he had an interest in toilets when he was young. Don’t you know they come in all sorts of versions, and flush differently…</p>
<p>Younger son was more like Shawbridge’s kids. Fascination with knights loved Legolas (and Haldir ever more).</p>
<p>And congrat’s to SJTH’s son. (Hope I got those initials in the right order!)</p>
<p>Thomas the Tank Engine with a hefty dose of Ancient Egypt. Mummies wrapped in toilet paper for a 6th birthday, treasure hunt through styrofoam pyramid. 5ft plastic sarcophagus in his room. Frequent trips to the Met for the Egyptian collection. Crushed when our trip to Egypt was canceled 10 years ago due to terrorist attack at Luxor. Thank god I was a classics major.
Oh the things we do (did) for our little ones!</p>
<p>Oh and S’s first great love was Ninja Turtles. D’s was THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which she called CHILDREN and watched three times a day before she was two.</p>
<p>OK, so I’m not an '09 parent, but I gotta dish…</p>
<p>S1 – Thomas, Thomas, Thomas – from about 18 months 'til he was almost eight. Still have all the trains, the original stories, t-shirts, tie, suspenders, (possibly some underwear :eek:), videos, backpack, etc. He got on the computer when he was four and started writing stories about the various characters. We did many “train trips” on steam engines, regional rail, Amtrak, etc.</p>
<p>He has always been a voracious reader, too. Inhaled anything he could get his hands on. He’s my Tolkien guy.</p>
<p>Once S1 got on the computer, he was all about the Logical Adventures of the Zoombinis – still plays it from time to time. In kindergarten, he was a Magic School Bus fiend – he says MSB got him through all of middle school science classes. Last year he surveyed a bunch of his friends at his math/science HS and a disproportionate number of them listed MSB as a significant influence on their interests in science.</p>
<p>S2 was also into Thomas, though not as deeply as S1. He was into animals and nature and built endless wildlife reserves where they would interact and the trains would come with scientists and observers. He was also the Master Dinosaur Expert. S2 could also mastered the Metro system map when he was four – he could tell us how to get anywhere and where to transfer trains. S2 was into Carmen Sandiego and geography, not so much into computers in general, though.</p>
<p>No Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles here. Some interests in Pokemon. Barney was loathed by all (and parody songs were regular features marathon drives in the car).</p>
<p>Both guys loved the 1960s-era Disney musicals.</p>
<p>Never thought I’d feel nostalgia for this, but I’m getting all misty thinking back:</p>
<p>Dinosaurs, dinosaurs and more dinosaurs, AND Godzilla. In every shape, form, format and size. Book, movie, poster, song, video game. Even Barney was OK early on.</p>
<p>Once I sent S to classics-based summer day camp (he was about 6) and after a couple of days everyone was asked to draw their favorite god or goddess. DS drew a raging, roaring, blood dripping Godzilla. The teacher was not amused.</p>
<p>A great Doctoral Dissertation here–'childhood obsessions and future collge majors" --underwritten by Disney and Mattel.</p>
<p>Tonight is the after prom party that I was nuts to offer–but here we are with a final count of 30 and an absolute “invitation only” mandate. This has already led to S’s angst as one girl not invited was invited by another and …you get the picture. I am so proud of S though as a guy aproached him and very politely and humbly said he was trying to find somewhere to land after the prom and he totally understood if S was too full and if he could come he would bring some food…S gave him and invitation and reassured this not popular guy that he could be invited. S acted with much maturity. Sweet moment in the telling and we don’t often get those so I brag and saver the moments.</p>
<p>Well–congrats to all!! and I agree that we have awsome kids even when they are totally taxing us. This process was not easy at our house and I know so much longer and more painful at some of yours. The party sounds fun but I am hoping we all stay on CC for moral support when different issues come up next year. Oh–now I feel sentamental…</p>
<p>Off to Costco–worried I don’t have enough food and have spent way too much $$$ on this thing. How much will they eat? and what will my carpet look like after? and will any of the neighbors ever speak to us again? party ends at 3 am.</p>
<p>Oregon101, nice of your daughter. How much will they eat? If it is 1/2 18 yo boys, there is no limit. Favorites from Costco that have fed hordes of boys in my house: Mystic Pizza, Chicken Ravioli (if you are allowing them to cook) although I think that they have changed from the most favored brand, Abuelita tortilla chips, tons of fruit (but that my be too messy), jellybeans, candy. Maybe girls will eat the cut up vegetables (crudites) with ranch dressing or pita chips and hummus but boys never do. We get dumplings and burritos from Trader Joes and Costco hamburger patties.</p>
<p>thanks Shawbridge–the fruit (strawberries with secret dip and grapes) is pleantiful, bought the aram turkey rolls and making a huge platter vegies and dip, humus and chips, potato chips and tortilla chips, candy, cheese cake with sauce (GF’s request), creampuffs and brownie bites, pop and juice. I did buy Costco’s chicken wings and since I am a veggie I think they look awful–does anyone know? hmmm–good to write this out as it does look like enough! Only ONE call from a girl and mom asking if they can bring anything. No one checking on what kind of party this is…I would be calling even if he is a senior. I bring my dip to our virtual party.
So anyone know the deli chicken wings from Costco?</p>
<p>We don’t get the chicken wings. The whole chickens on the other hand are pretty good.</p>
<p>Costco was our ally in our strategy to have our house be the one the boys hung out in. That way, we had some sense of what was going on. It worked pretty well with my son. Our approach: Lots of food. Don’t preview the movies (I couldn’t believe that our son’s friends’ parents thought that this was somehow smart – they can watch anything they want on the internet so why make them feel like they can’t watch what they want at your home, in which case they’ll just go someplace else). Only fight the important battles.</p>
<p>We had a modest post-prom party at our house last year; three couples who stayed up all night and then fell asleep in various parts of the house. I don’t think anything happened (then again, I don’t anyone would copy me on that memo) but I did have the “Treat your partner with respect/use contraceptives” talk with my son before that weekend. Much better in our house than wondering where they were at 4 AM.</p>
<p>The Costco strategy hasn’t worked with our daughter – food is not the same draw and the presence of mothers seems to be a negative draw for a fair number of the girls, including ours. But, tonight is the formal (all classes) for our sophomore daughter and a couple of kids will be coming back to our house afterwards. Girls, no boys that I know of. Makes life much simpler.</p>
<p>Deja, lol, no --after he was accepted to Oberlin Conservatory and Columbia, he declined to stay on the waitlist of the ED school. I think the main reason was that they were SO uncommunicative. He had sent two emails to the jazz director–1 to thank him for the audition and the second with a couple of questions–and never received a response.</p>
<p>You’ll have to give a full report of the after prom party - two weeks until ours. I plan to have lots of food but as non-messy as possible. Folks have suggested fondue - no way!</p>
<p>D1’s graduation (in MIchigan) is the same weekend as D2’s senior prom (in CA). H and I are both going to graduation … and D2 will stay home and take in some of the festivities of the weekend. We have a good friend (surrogate aunt) who will stay here. Still … not ideal, but what else can we do?</p>
<p>So, you guys think waiting to get into college was torture? Hey, you’re still a consumer. My '09 daughter (college class of '09, but still officially qualifies) decided to take a gap year before law school before the economy totally tanked and can’t find a job. </p>
<p>It’s torture to watch her.</p>
<p>If anyone knows of anything in NYC for a liberal arts graduate, please PM me.</p>
