Last night, just as we were finishing dinner, Diego started a sentence the way he starts countless others: "Daddy/Mommy, can we..." I cringed, in preparation. Be strong, Dan. In the words of Nancy Reagan, "Just Say No." Whatever it is, it won't be something they should do. They drive bargains; that's what these people do. They start high, with things like "Can we go to Disneyland? Tomorrow?" I go low. "No, you can't. Ever. And you can't go anywhere else either. Ever." Then we try to meet somewhere in the middle.
This time, however, I'm relieved, when he asks, "Can we put on some music and dance?"
"Yes! Of course we can, my son! Of course!" Jeanette was thrilled, and immediately began her stretches, in preparation. (I'm teasing. Homegirl was doing handstands as they danced. Literally. Hot yoga is definitely paying off.) Anyway, I'm a little under the weather with asthma and allergies right now (no, seriously, I am), so I had to play deejay. Thinking fast, I put "Michael Jackson Radio" on the Pandora, and the party STARTED.
No, I didn't videotape it this time, sadly, though I did think about it. What happens when you do that sometimes, though, is that it can kill the spontaneity of it. And man, watching my two boys and their mom going like tops around the living room floor with "Beat It" and "When Doves Cry" and "Remember the Time" playing . . . I tell you, it doesn't get any better than that.
Jackson's moves were more rhythmic, and MUCH more, um, how do I put this... adult ... than Diego's. For example, at one point, he was kind of like "freakin" Jeanette from behind (I don't know where he learned it, I swear), and as I raised an eyebrow, he grinned and saluted me. The kid saluted me. I shit you not. We're in SO MUCH trouble. Diego was more ethereal; his dance style was more of a "flow," with some robot thrown in there. I think he's learning different steps in P.E. class right now.
As I think I've said before somewhere in these pages, there will come a time, a few years from now, when these two young people will not be this into us. Dancing with their parents will be way down there on their list of things they consider fun. In fact, I don't think it will be on their list at all. So for now, Jeanette and I live for these moments.
Oh, okay, you want to see them dancing? Here you go: In case you missed it, here they are, dancing to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
We are truly lucky to have young children at this stage of our lives!! You are so right, I tell Kris..the time will come when they won't even want anyone to know that we are their parents. I was talking to a colleage of mine with a middle schooler and the kid insisted on walking into school the last block of their morning commute so as not to be seen with his parents.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I lectured my parent/colleague on how that was not a good idea and how they needed to put their foot down and act like the parent and not their child's friend!!! I can't help the "Principal" in me...is still so alive and well!!
colleague...I really can spell it.
ReplyDeleteWhen my brother and I would act all stank like that with my mom, she responded by holding hands and skipping next to us. She did it so much that we curbed our attitudes. I wish she'd written a parenting book. Her methods were "unconventional" but effective.
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