growing up armstrong

Its funny how having a kid is, in some ways, like living your childhood all over again. I mean, maybe I would have watched Sesame Street in my PJs while eating blueberries with one hand and stacking blocks with the other even if I hadn't had a child...but probably not. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read nearly as many Suess books and certainly wouldn't have memorized Goodnight moon and countless other stories.

When you have a kid, you remember a lot about your own childhood. I mean, that is the main example you have to work from. Which, in some cases, is problematic if your childhood was traumatic or unhealthy. Lucky for me (and Kyle), we had wonderful childhood experiences (thanks mom & dad!).

It has dawned on me lately, however, that some of the things that I thought everyone did or knew about were actually not as universal as I thought. For example. I decided to get Abby some graham crackers for the first time and mentioned to Kyle "now all we need is cream cheese" He gave me this funny look and said, "okaaaay..." As it turns out, not everybody was raised to know that the reason graham crackers were even invented was so that cream cheese would have something other than bagels to go on.

This realization prompted me to ask Kyle "what about graham cracker cereal?" Again, I got a blank look. I was a little shocked to learn that he, and I assume most people, didn't routinely fill a bowl with broken graham crackers and pour milk over it. It was one of my favorite breakfasts growing up - but you had to eat it fast because its not as good soggy...and it gets soggy fast. My good friend Joel would laugh at this and add it to our ongoing list of "things poor people do" I have a whole book of "poor people games" that my siblings and I constructed one year for Christmas. We should totally publish it. It's great stuff.

Anyway. Other things that I grew up with that others didn't:

-calling your shoulder blades "wing-nubs" As in, "hey, dad, scratch my wing-nub"

- knowing that when microwaving a cup of tea, the perfect time is 1:11. To this day, I still use that number.

- My dad and his siblings once wrote an entire musical - I remember thinking that everyone did this in college.

- the confusion that happens when you're 5 and think God looks a lot like Santa Claus, and your dad, the preacher, looks like both.

- Instead of playing "I-spy" we said "Riddle, Riddle, Marie - I see something you don't see..." I thought those were completely different games for a long time.

- I thought breaking out into song was normal.

- I was actually pretty old when I discovered that not everyone knows that angles and star ornaments have to go on the top of a christmas tree and that glass ball ornaments should be placed on the inside branches to reflect the light...and the other hundred rules for decorating a Christmas tree (Kyle is still a bit intimidated I think when it comes to this)

-I thought going to the Indian pow-wow every summer was just a typical american activity.

- I thought all parents kept a "Book of Discipline" on the bookshelf...very intimidating for a child to see (its actually a book of the Methodist rules/regulations/etc)

I could go on and on and on. I have so many wonderful, and funny memories. And I hope I can pass on some of those to Abby. Mom, I promise to let her play in the mud...even if she's grounded, at least once. Dad, I promise to show her how to cut apples so that you can see the stars inside. And Abby, I promise to do my best to give you a loving and creative and exciting childhood.

fun times. :)