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04/19/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

The Seniors

On Thursday I ventured into Glendale to pick up Jackie and the boys for the time they allotted to spend with Jan and me. That time has rushed by, as good times usually do. Today, on this rainy Holy Saturday, I will take them to the airport this afternoon so they will be home tomorrow for the arrival of the Easter Bunny, I mean, the Easter day celebration…

The last two days have been filled with little boy energy, contained within a smallish 1 bedroom condo. Alexander proclaimed that he liked this home that is “actually an apartment.” It is very close quarters here, but enough space to allow for game playing, movie watching, grilled cheese eating, and one lunch with Rose and Mary.

When Cameron got into my car on Thursday he declared that he wanted to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Not because he is drawn to these programs but because he wanted to watch them with “The Seniors”. By that he means Jan and I and Rose and Mary. I didn’t question the term. It seems so appropriate. And I guess if you are a WoF and Jeopardy fan you qualify as a Senior.

But first there was a Lego challenge awaiting the boys. Cameron assigned himself to help Gigi (Jan) build her 945 piece Lego Wicked set that I gave her for Christmas. Xander and I were meant to build a less complex set featuring a boat that would actually float in the tub. So Cameron set off to open the bags of pieces that are mostly green, of course, and have figurines for the main characters in the Wicked movie. They made a huge pile on one end of the dining room table.

In my best Senior mode I tried to advise him to just open the bags in order since they were numbered from one to nine. He wasn’t having this. He did open the  first instruction booklet and off he went. With dizzying speed he started assembling. Jan and I had thought it might take him a day and a half to finish this big project. Three hours later, there was the Wicked emerald castle complete with Elphaba and Glinda and Madame Morrible. It was an incredibly fast build and we Seniors were left with our mouths open, reminded that this child is a genuine Lego Master.

Xander was not too attracted to my little project, so this Senior set about building the puny little 145 piece boat by herself. I can report that it made it into the tub last night and, as promised, it floats. Xander was more interested in creating fighting matches between two of the figurines. This has been his MO since he could hold one thing in each hand and have them do battle with each other, complete with sound effects.

While Cameron was building, I started working on the brownie mix. These boys have never had a brownie in their short lives, so it was up to me to introduce them to this chocolate delight. After the mix was in the pan and in the oven, with Mom’s permission I introduced them to the most fun thing about making brownies: licking the spatula and the stirring spoon. That was a huge success. Once the brownies were done and cool enough to eat they were served their first brownies. They declared them delicious and their mother promised to add them to her baking repertoire.

Yesterday morning, Cameron was up at the crack of dawn. We also have a Wicked monopoly set that caught his eye – by the way, Jan is a huge fan of Cynthia Erivo and by extension also a fan of the Wicked movie, hence the Wicked theme at our house. Anyway, Cameron and I played monopoly in the early morning dawn hours. Before the game was done, he owned all the properties and left me with a measly 10 Ozian coins to my name. Cameron 1, Senior 0. 

There is a pretty cool playground less than a mile from the house, so they visited that twice and used up some of that endless energy. Apparently Xander spent too much time on a spinning thing and the result was a prodigious episode of getting rid of his lunch. There was also some TV watching of a very annoying show called “Bad Dinosaurs” that the Seniors did not appreciate but the boys loved it for its sound effects and bad behavior on the part of the dinosaurs.

So ends 2 ½ days of fun and indulgence. And, by the way, Cameron declared both WoF and Jeopardy to be very boring. So much for the Seniors’ watching habits. They can take that off their bucket list!