Harry Potter Birthday
So Josh has turned four and can't wait to turn five! It was actually a great birthday. For the Aney side, hands down the best present Josh got was his cousin Nick's hand me down Harry Potter blanket. Every night I get a run down of everything on it when I cover Josh up. It's almost as if he expects the blanket to magically change or something ;) A huge thanks to Nick for that one - he thought of the present himself when he was told Josh was having a Harry Potter party with his friends.
So for Josh's first 'friend' birthday party, Uncle Tom was the hit of the party dusting off some of his old magic tricks to do a Harry Potter Magic Show. Unfortunately, I discovered minutes before the show that my Camcorder was broken and I was relegated to trying to tape it on my regular digital camera. However, the big problem was that the memory card kept filling up, so I'd run downstairs and copy it off quick and run back up and start recording. So I missed a few tricks, but I missed the best one of all.
It was actually an impressive trick and I had the 'whole' thing recorded (about a 7-8 minute setup) and then the memory card went full literally 5 seconds before the 'payoff' if you will. Just to describe it, it was in true Harry Potter fashion and Tom made 'Scabbers' (actually Lucy their guinea pig) completely disappear in front of their eyes and everyone was dumbfounded. Since I was Tom's expert magic trick tester growing up (if he could fool me, he was ready to perform it on a live audience), I was able to spot several rusty spots during his performance but all the kids and Moms were thoroughly impressed and we can't thank Tom enough for making Josh's birthday party a complete hit. If you want to check out some of his tricks (and Josh's great 'costume' you can view a video here).
Some of you may have seen an email about a George Carlin skit on age. I guess Carlin is dismissing it as not his, so I'll post only bits of it. Since it is pretty funny and totally rings true with Josh's feelings right now, I couldn't resist including it for reference. As the post title indicates, every time someone would ask Josh how old he is (true birthday tradition) he would answer "Four, but next I'm five!" So with that in mind...
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .. . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"