I suspect for all parents, there is a sense of pride whenever their kids take a true interest in something for which they enjoy.

Thanks to Dayna, I’ve had opportunity to relish such a situation as of late.

On Saturday I had to work, so Dayna was on her own with the kids; one of their stops was the bookstore.  I don’t know the exact chain of events, but at some point Dayna gave Brody a Calvin and Hobbes book to read.

Brody instantly fell in love with the wise-cracking, overly dramatic and highly mischievous young lad. 

Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite strip of all time (save for possibly ‘Arnold’ , a strip that ran locally in the Free Press in the 80’s for a few years) and I have the entire library of his comic strips.

Brody was ecstatic to learn we had this at home and made me dig it out forthwith upon my arrival.   Interestingly, Dayna is the one who can read these best, imbuing the characters with their … character.

It’s great to watch Dayna reading those books to the kids.

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History was having an exhibition of reproductions from King Tut’s tomb.  Brody is a huge fan of ancient Egypt and King Tut in particular.  As such, there were several attempts to go…all foiled by weather…however we were finally able to make it during the holiday break.

While downtown, we also took the opportunity to visit the newly re-opened Detroit Institute of Arts. 

Dayna loves to go and look at the Diego Rivera mural, I’m partial to the Van Goghs, and both of us like to visit where I proposed. 

While there the kids had an opportunity to sit and draw pictures of famous paintings in a couple of the galleries.   Both took their times picking the ones to which they’d like to pay homage, and both did a fine job.  (see pics below – click to enlarge).

Here’s where I change direction a little bit.

We did tour the museum quickly; standing, appreciating, and nodding one’s head in reflection as if you really ‘get it’ is more of an adult thing…kids, no so much.  During our tour we hit the contemporary art section.  Regardless of your opinion of modern art, to a kid who has seen nothing but paintings of biblical stories and/or rubenesque naked women, ‘art’, other than as a painting, is a surprise.  They also have that innocent ‘the king has no clothes’ sort of honest about some of the more pretentious pieces.

It was difficult to explain at first, then genius struck. 

‘Spencer’

Yes, all we had to say was ‘Spencer’ and the kids got it.

Spencer is a character on iCarly who is a sculpture artist who makes wacky things (like a Christmas tree made out of green car parts).

All of a sudden the kids LOVED contemporary art.  SUCH, that when Mo had a neighbor over, they recently created their first contemporary sculpture series. (see below  -  click to enlarge).

Thank you iCarly.

As we were finishing up dinner and beginning homework, Brody had to move the magazine on the table.  In the upper right was a little teaser on Bristol Pain’s baby.

Brody, using a scientific questioning method, started off with…

-Who is Bristol Palin

-The daughter of former VP candidate

-Is ‘Bristol’ a name

-Yes, all of her kids have unique names

-How old is she

-We think she’s 17

-17?  Can you have a baby when you’re a kid

-Yes (here, we know where this is going…so the answers start to get ‘shorter’)

-Is she married

-Of course, they’re religious republicans…they eat wholesomeness all day, shit family values and wipe their ass with the constitution! (had to take one last dig before the last eight years are in the history books) - Actually no, she’s not married.

-(place foreboding music here…)

-So how did they have a baby if they weren’t married?

As a very experienced father I immediately laugh and hand it off to Dayna (it was her People magazine after all). 

Just before Dayna invoked the birds and the bees Brody dropped a toy down the basement stairs and totally forgot about Bristol Palin and returned to his homework.

Phew!

Brody is going to be a busy boy in January.  He has a detailed diorama to create based on a book of fiction; a science project for the science fair to do AND a new project on a current band.

As we were discussing this tonight, we asked what band he wanted to do.  He clarrified that the music teacher has strictly forbidden papers on the Jonas Bros, Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana (apparently some third grade girls don’t know the secret, so like Santa – don’t want to ruin that just yet…we’ll just pretend they are two separate people..wink, wink).   Brody said EVERY girl in his class was bummed.

Brody said he’d like to do ZZ Top.

I was sooooo proud. 

He then asked if they had any dirty lyrics, cause they couldn’t do a band with ‘bad words’.

Hmmmmm, let’s think …. They don’t swear ‘PER SE’, but their lyrics are suggestive….

At this point I have to balance being a responsible parent versus the fact that he picked a band I like.

My internal dialogue is all over, then two things happen…

First, lyrics from one of their songs crosses my mind…

She was gettin bombed,
And I was gettin blown away,
And she held it in her hand
And this is what she had to say:

Then Brody asked if I remembered that one song off the 'skeleton' cd of theirs.  He, of course as you know, is referring to the art on the cd of their Mescalero album and their ode to the human form, ‘Buck Nekkid.’  (yup – Dad must have forgotten to fast forward on that in the car). 

Soooooooo we nicely suggested he think of a new band.

Well, for x-mas Brody received a Guitar Hero, Classic Rock for his Nintendo DS.  One neat aspect of the game is that he is getting a fast education, and true appreciation, for classic rock.  He recently asked our guitar teacher for the chords and riffs for ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’  He has also become quite the little Bon Jovi fan (so while I supported the ZZ Top aspect, Dayna, whose first concert was Bon Jovi, certainly supports this interest).

So Brody is now doing his report on the Jon, Richie and the rest from Jersey.