Happy Birthday Michael!

So Michael turns 10 today (at 5:43 p.m. EST), and has officially entered the double digits. He told me that he's a bit nervous about it, what with all the extra responsibilities that 10 year-olds have that 9 year-olds don't (I'm still unsure of what those are).

To celebrate his birthday, he chose this year to have a sleep-over with a few friends, rather that the traditional tubing party that we've had in the past. Michael bristled when Sal called it a 'slumber party', saying that slumber parties are for girls, sleep-overs are for boys. This would be a gathering of four or five boys, and they'd sleep in the studio under my supervision. Not having been to a sleep-over of my own since I was a kid, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I figured there would be a lot of burping and farting, some talk about Transformers and superheroes or maybe sports of some kind, and a bit of misbehavior, possibly resulting in some blood, bruising or even a late night trip to the ER and a call to a parent. If there was to be any talk about girls, I figured it would preceded or followed with the word 'icky' or some other adjective that I would have to reprimand them for saying, but secretly get a kick out of.

What I was not expecting was the immense amount of video game playing, and, to my surprise, talk about girls in the not-so-icky sense. Yes, there was burping and farting (some quite impressive, actually), lots of horsing around (no major injuries to report), and some misbehavior. But what I did not expect is the talk of who likes who, and even a game of 'Truth or Dare'. So while Michael was adamant that this was no slumber party, you could have easily replaced the 5 boys with 5 (albeit flatulent) girls, and had mostly the same party.

In any case, they stayed up until midnight (and were up at 6:30 - ug), played more computer games that is probably legal in any 24-hour span, watched movies, ate chips and pizza and cupcakes and ice cream and pancakes, drank soda, and generally did whatever they pleased. Talk was of this being the 'best sleep-over ever'. And on my watch.

Happy Birthday, Michael.