October 18, 2011

Birthday celebration

It’s a busy time of the semester, but we all took a break last week to celebrate With-a-Why’s birthday. I made a couple of apple pies, and the older kids stopped on their way home to buy shortcake, strawberries, and whipped cream.

Skater Boy has a birthday two days before With-a-Why so the celebration was for him as well. The candle ceremony would wait until Saturday, but we did what we do for any occasion — talked and ate. Philosophical Boy, who is in his first year of college, had just come home for fall break and we all exclaimed over how long his hair had grown. I sipped hot tea as I listened to the conversations around the kitchen table.

“Hey, remember that pianist you went to hear last year?” Philosophical Boy said.

“Dick Hyman?” asked With-a-Why. He glanced over at Boy in Black, who smirked.

“Yeah, he was at my school,” said Philosophical Boy. He mumbled something about a sextet  -- clarinet, piano, and strings. That last bit of information was too much for Boy in Black.

“A sextet?” he asked. “I mean, seriously? If your name was Dick Hyman wouldn’t you make one person leave to make it a quintet? Or maybe add a person?”

Shaggy Hair Boy laughed and cut himself another piece of pie. I put another log on the fire. First Extra stretched out on the couch, talking to my daughter, who had brought home a laundry basket of dirty clothes. Thinking Girl was talking about the work she had do, while Smiley Girl was nodding in agreement. We all had work we were supposed to be doing.

“And With-a-Why has school tomorrow,” my husband pointed out. But still, it was after midnight before the older kids left and we all went to bed.

With-a-Why, my youngest, is seventeen years old now. And Skater Boy, the kid we’ve known since he used to come up our driveway in a big wheel, is now twenty. It's still hard for me to believe.

11 comments:

Rana said...

Happy birthday to them both!

(I'm still giggling a bit about poor Dick Hyman.)

Magpie said...

LOL about the Dick Hyman Sextet...

Anonymous said...

Too funny.

R.

Amber said...

Or maybe try Rich or Rick?? lol

17 years old?! Wow. I've been reading your blog since he was 12 or 13.

My oldest just turned 8. Such a round, bubbly number. Glad that 17 is still down the road a bit.

Anonymous said...

17!!! So I suppose he'll be going soon, too! Maybe I should not have reminded you, but you are lucky in that yours are mostly close enough to come home often.

jo(e) said...

Readersguide: He's a junior in high school now so yeah, two years from now, he'll be off at college.

And yes, I love that they all live close enough that I see them often. I'm very fortunate.

Phil said...

I was in the Ohio State Marching Band from '67 to '71, and we had a legendary arranger, the guy who defined our band's sound (and it had to be wrought from the whole cloth, since we're the only all-brass college marching band). His name was Dick Heine.

YourFireAnt said...

I've actually heard that guy Dick Hyman (he went by Richard then) play with the SSO pops years ago. After the show, we wrote him a fan letter because of his name.

;-)

YourFireAnt said...

and his funniness.

T.

Anonymous said...

wait. With-a-Why is 17?! Wasn't he 10 yesterday? Weren't you just dressing Boy in Black like Johnny Cash so he could give his high school valedictory speech?

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

jo(e) said...

Twofrisch: I know! When I started this blog (which seems like just yesterday), With-a-Why was a little kid ....