Style Maven

A Beautiful Day for a Neighbor

Our neighbors love us. I mean, they have to. What’s not to love? Sure, my kids are loud and sometimes obtrusive and I’ve been known to wander my yard in a pair of pajama pants that have holes in unfortunate places. We’re not exactly who Mr. Rogers had in mind, but we’re a friendly bunch and for the most part keep to ourselves.

For the most part.

My two youngest like to watch what’s happening outside. If there’s someone within view, they’ll notice and follow their actions from each window. You can’t get away from them. It’s almost creepy.

Which made it nothing unusual when my 5 year old stood at the window and proceeded to greet one of the women who live next door. Except Buzz just happened to be without clothing in this instance. Surely this would be of no concern to her, however. The view was at a height that nothing would be seen as long as he kept at the position he was in.

Of course he wouldn’t stay in the position he was in.

“Hi!”, he waved innocently enough. The neighbor looked up and politely waved back, unaware of what she was about to confront. They continued waving awhile longer, until Buzz decided to take it a step further. He turned around and lifted himself up, showing his bare bottom.

“Look at my butt!”

Now, really. Won’t you be my neighbor?

Technologically Advanced

I looked up my klout.com score the other day, an indicator of how much influence you have in social media, to find the number hilariously low. What was even more amusing, however, was that it said I was influential in my limited capacity about iPhones and iPads, neither of which I owned at the time nor knew a lot about. Except it may be possible that klout can also see into the future, because I am now in the possession of an iPhone.

Or rather, we own 3 iPhones. For the kids.

The kids received these iPhones as gifts recently. They’re previously used and not on a plan for cell calls, but there are games galore and they’re connected to our internet. While the younger ones just like to press buttons, not fully realizing what they do, Jedi has always been more tech savvy. He’s played many of these games before, and took to his new toy like a geek to suspenders.

They are also programmed with their dad’s email, along with Skype and instant messaging, so they can harass him as much as they want. Jedi was thoroughly entertained with these new features at the ready.

His very first text message ever sent:

I farted.

Technology is great.

Party Every Day

Music doesn’t move me much anymore. I just don’t listen to a lot of it. In fact, my kids weren’t born yet the last time I found myself truly infatuated with a band or musician. When I do, though, I prefer real instruments. I want guitars and drums, a noticeable talent, I don’t want auto-tune. An overwhelming number of recent artists, however, all sound like prepackaged pop from the same factory. It was so much better back in my day.

That’s right, I’m old.

Give me some classic rock, though, and I can sing right along.

We were watching television when a background song came on. “That’s Ozzy Osbourne”, he told me. He’s a big fan of Ozzy, with partial thanks to Iron Man. Except this time, it clearly wasn’t Ozzy.

“No, that’s Kiss”, I corrected.

“No, Kiss is not a name”, he stood firm. Like duh, mom. “It’s Ozzy Osbourne.”

“Fine, if you want to be specific, it’s Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons from the band Kiss singing Rock ‘n Roll All Night,” and zing. Don’t question mama and her rock music. I even looked a video up on YouTube to show him the band in all their makeup, singing the tune live. Surely there’s no room for argument anymore.

I forgot that he has inherited a steadfast bullheadedness. He walked away from the computer without taking in 10 seconds. “Nope, that’s not it. It’s Ozzy.”

But at least we’re not arguing over Justin Bieber.

Picasso

Take a good long look at this face.

I know. I ask if I can take a picture on his last day of school and this is the best he gives me. My point proven on this post.

But this boy. He may very well be the next Picasso.

At least he is to me, anyway. His creative eye, and that picture, they both just slay me.