Our first grandchild is a boy! And here's how we learned: The Cupcake Reveal.A boy. I remember when we learned this with our son after an ultrasound test in 1983. The first thing that ran through my mind was, "Maybe he'll like the same toys I did when I was a kid!" Indeed, Ethan became a Legomaniac, just as I was, and he enjoyed drawing comic books, just as I did. (But he was better at it.) My mention of furnishing yard sale Legos at the end of the video is not a joke. I have a bunch now.
They don't have a name picked out yet; Sarah was running on the assumption that the baby was a girl. The family genealogist - me - pointed out that ever since about 1814 or so, for nearly two hundred years, every male in my line has had "Wesley" somewhere in his name: Wesley H. Clark (c. 1814-1888), John Wesley Clark (1850-1922), Harry Wesley Clark (1884-1942), Wesley Harry Clark (1912-1983), Me, Wesley Harry Clark, Jr. (1956), Ethan Wesley Clark (1983). My half brother was John "Jack" Wesley Clark; his son is Steven Wesley Clark. No pressure...
(Why all the Wesleys? I cannot yet prove it, but I think it's because the family was Methodist after being Quakers for generations, and was honoring the founder of the faith, John Wesley.)
In the video Sarah mentions that the Clark name will be maintained after all. That's a reference to a short conversation we had over the holidays, when she asked if I preferred a boy or a girl. I said a boy, but then added that either one is fine, of course. I then mentioned that the reason I preferred a boy was that so, after the countless hours I have spent doing genealogical research on the Clark family line, that the surname be maintained into the next generation. A bit of scholarly selfishness, I guess.
During yard sale seasons I refrain from buying things "...for grandchildren I didn't have." What's to restrain me now?
My wife, that's what.
Yesterday I listened to Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Wasps (Aristophanic Suite) via a library CD. What a great piece of music! How come I never heard it before? VW went to Paris to study orchestration under Maurice Ravel (one of the great masters of scoring for musical instruments), and this piece shows it. It just sparkles.
I had a Webelos Den meeting last night; a wondrous and loud meeting of ten year old male minds. I think I mentioned that I have one kid who has some sort of bizarre potato fixation; he constantly mentions them. One of the requirements for the engineering activity pin was to draw an outline of your home, like a blue print. This lad did that. Can you guess how he labelled the kitchen? "Where potatoes are cooked." Naturally, outside, a potato patch was located on the front yard. When we discussed various types of bridges - suspension, beam, truss, etc. - he repeatedly volunteered "Potato bridge." Can you guess what his nickname is now? We have the pinewood derby a week from this Saturday. I told him that I would be seriously disappointed if the popular tuber didn't provide the design inspiration for his car. Last year his car was designed to look like a dollar bill on wheels, with his face, not Washington's, in the middle. Clearly, this is a merry soul who marches to the beat of his own accordion.
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The Potato Boy: His car was more or less conventionally shaped for a Pinewood Derby racer, and it was painted green and blue. It did, however, have "Potato" painted upon the top.
It wasn't very fast. In fact, sometimes it didn't make it to the finish line.
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