Back when I had a baby Huck attached to me 24 hours a day, I began writing about this strange new phenomenon called Motherhood.  When I was a couple months pregnant our brother in-law made us troyandjonny.com and I pretty quickly began posting mommy essays and religiously updating the Huck Blog with pictures and anecdotes for our family and friends (some things never change).  Taking a break from acting and the real world outside the comfort of our little home and neighborhood was something I needed to do for a while there, and writing about it fulfilled the part of me that needed to be creative.  Plus I could stay in my jammies all day long.

In 2010 another mom and blogger named Amy Imig organized a group of writers to read their work in front of an audience, and Listen to Your Mother was born. Two years later, her vision has become a very successful national series of live readings on motherhood by local writers.  This year there are shows going on all around the country in places like San Francisco, Austin, Fayetteville, Arkansas (where we’re about to spend a week), Chicago and Philadelphia.  I was honored to be one of the writers/performers chosen for yesterday’s sold-out show in the Big Apple, joining 14 other remarkable women and one delightful man (plus several amazing producers) to share our diverse stories of motherhood with one very enthusiastic audience.  We told stories of austism, infertility, adoption, aging mothers, sick kids, off to college kids, twin kids, and identity crises, proving yet again the obvious old saying “having a baby will change your life.” It was awfully nice to spend the day this way and take a break from trying to convince Huck to listen to his mother.  (Can I get an Amen?)

After the show we got to meet each other’s friends and families, including a few of the kids who had been the stars in their mother’s stories.  As I learned their names I realized I had never mentioned Huck by name through this whole process, nor had I ever heard the names of most of my castmate’s children.  Living in a world where all we do is talk about our kids (half the time I’m known as “Huck’s Mom”),  I was again reminded of how unique this experience was for all of us.  Though Listen to Your Mother is centered around motherhood, it was actually about each one of us as individuals and not our children.

The piece I read was written back when Huck was a baby and I was brand new at this parenthood business.  In it, 19 year old Jonny makes 35 year old Jonny feel a little nervous about her choices to stay home with the baby.  It’s been fun to revisit this essay, now that I’m an old pro and couldn’t care less what Young Me thinks.  Though I must care a little bit, because I had a big old smile on my face picturing her approval as I walked down Broadway heading to the theatre.  Take that, Jonny Hottman!

Here’s the amazing creator, director, producers and cast …

Here I am with Ann Imig, who came all the way from Madison to see our show, giving us all a great big thrill!

And here’s our fabulous MC Rene Syler:

And my two best fans Chad and Troy, whose laughter during the show could be heard from 76th Street all the way to Washington Heights, I’m sure.  (I didn’t get pictures of my other best fans Tiffany, Jennifer, Sue and Tracie but thank you four for being there, too!)

Best of all, I got a home-made break-a-leg card and roses from Troy again.  It’s been a while …

Huck’s been a bit of a monster lately, totally fragile and breaking into full fledged tantrums when angry just like a horrible two year old or a drunken Stanley Kowalski.  Who knows what he’s going through?  Top secret anxiety over our upcoming week apart while he’s in Kansas and we’re in Arkansas?  Stress over first grade coming to an end?  Anger towards Blanche Dubois being in town?  All we know is that as soon as he goes to bed at night Troy and I give each other really sympathetic facial expressions like we’ve just survived a war together. Because that is exactly what parenthood feels like these days.

Meanwhile Huck’s favorite pastime is to build a gigantic nest on his bed with every blanket we own, turn up his Vornado fan full blast, turn up his rain forest bird chirping sound machine full blast, dim his lights to the lowest possible setting and rest in the nest as an imaginary poisonous creature whose name I can’t remember how to pronounce.

Anyway, yesterday Huck had another outrageous response to being told TV time was over, which prompted many discussions about his behavior and the consequences, blah blah blah blah blah.  Again Troy and I stole meaningful glances when we could, briefly revealing our war wounds to each other while delicately trying to move our violent soldier onto the next phase of the evening, which was making dinner.  Approximately 12 minutes later I completely lost my mind trying to log onto TD Ameritrade’s website to check on an account.  I literally felt like I was going to begin kicking, screaming, sobbing and maybe blowing things up, and when Troy asked if he could help I think I growled something like “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE EVERYONE AND LET ME BE MAD ABOUT THIS!”   I have a hazy memory of the two of them tiptoeing back into the kitchen with Huck sarcastically saying a melodic “Okay …”   I finally found what I was looking for and regained my normal blood pressure, hoping no one noticed the irony of it all.

I think there’s something in our water.

Troy and I have birthdays four days apart so each year there’s a week of fun and overeating.  Here are some pictures from this year’s escapades which included lots of sunshine on our building’s back patio, visits to Ft. Tryon Park, lunch in Brooklyn, cheesecake, homemade ice cream sundaes inspired by Uncle Scott, the Cloisters chess exhibit, a day rehearsing and performing a reading of our friend John Walch’s wonderful play (and finally capturing a fantastic picture of him for once in our lives), Indian food, a neighborhood picnic at Castle Village, dragging a suitcase through the city, getting suntans, getting rained on, Bull Moose Saloon for greasy food with friends, losing Troy’s wallet for a day, getting separated on the subway train, too many late nights for Huck, lots of games of Sorry, lots of good book reading, and more laughter than I can describe. And now back to regular old normal life, which thankfully is generally full of all the above.

While tucking Huck in just now on this birthday eve of mine, I began reminiscing about what I imagine this night was like 42 years ago for my mom.  Huck asked who was more important to remember at birthday time: the mother who gave you birth or the father who married your mother and allowed it so she could give you birth.  I didn’t really like so much how he worded that question so I quickly answered “the mother” in a lower voice than normal.  Next he began talking about how without the mother and the father there would be no baby and how the father plants the seed into the mother, and then his voice trailed off a bit in uncertainty and he asked, “How does the seed get gotten in?”  Glad to be in darkness, I made that facial expression like when you’re about to see two cars collide into each other or like when you’re hearing Rush Limbaugh’s voice.  ”We’ll talk about that a little later,” I said.  And then he told me how his little friend at school explained that when the mom and dad sleep naked and their private parts touch the seed gets planted.  ”Is that true?” he asked.  ”Pretty much,” I said.  ”Oh!” he replied, somewhat surprised but perfectly pleased with my answer.  And that was that.

Happy my birthday, Mom and Dad.

I think it’s very funny that I, who know very little about popular music these days, and I , who often feel like a social media nitwit, had a YouTube video go viral thanks to the tweeting of a superstar whose name sounds vaguely familiar.  I posted the Muscota first graders’ flash mob a couple weeks ago innocently enough, but somehow the singer of that song saw the video and Tweeted about it to all his fans.  Suddenly my sweet little video got over 15,000 hits, which means over 15,000 people enjoyed Huck and his classmates dancing (as well as my sister Jeni, brother in-law Nathan and niece Lily applauding at the end)!  I’m expecting Ellen’s call any day now.  But even more exciting?  They got a writeup in our neighborhood’s little newspaper The Manhattan Times.  At least that’s what is most fantastic to Huck.  (Would it have been too much to ask for a flash mob to “Sunday Bloody Sunday?”)

Anyway, if you guys need me to tell my good old buddy @chrisbrown anything just let me know.  He loves my work.

Sigh.  Where’s @BonoVox_ or @ANNELAMOTT when you need them?

Huck returned to school on this summer-like April morning a little tired from all the adventures we packed into the final three days of spring break, which is what happens when non-car owning New Yorkers suddenly have access to one. Pre-Car Spring Break included a packed Easter Sunday, a little friend’s birthday party in the park, lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, and many hours of Huck entertaining himself while his parents tried to earn a living at the church.  A couple of delightful moments during this car-free time: While looking over his Easter egg goodies in the bright sunshine Huck  innocently said, “Let’s go shit in the sade,” and a few days later while playing Monopoly asked me, “What’s your real name again?  Angelica?”  I hope he keeps getting things a little wrong for a few more years, although I do hope he memorizes his mother’s name sometime.

(We also spent a lot of money getting faulty wiring in our bedroom fixed so that we could install a ceiling fan.  Once the two day job was complete the electrician sympathetically said, “That was a very expensive ceiling fan.”)

Once our friends went on vacation and needed their car looked after, things got exciting.  We drove down to Liberty Science Center in Jersey City on Friday, up to Bear Mountain near Peekskill, New York on Saturday, and way down to Coney Island in Brooklyn on Sunday.  If we owned a car, we’d probably never be home.

The highlight of the week was our day trip far from the city noise and crowds.  We spent the day climbing to the top of Bear Mountain (with occasional fearless rock climbing excursions led by Huck) accompanied by our good friends John, Shana, Dusty and Natalie.  This was especially impressive because two of us have bad knees, one a broken rib, one a hurt achilles tendon, and one a seven year old body.  Once we returned to the bottom of the mountain all intact, we began searching for a charming upstate eatery.  We stumbled upon a wonderful place in Peekskill where we could sit outside in the lovely spring weather.  As we got ourselves settled Troy asked if I recognized the woman in the beautiful sweater nearby.  We all  turned to look, and because each of us are fans of The Wire, our entire table of tired mountain hikers let out a collective scream/gasp when we realized it was Sonja Sohn who plays the wonderful Kima!   We sort of scared Huck with our ridiculous reaction and so I explained to him that it would be like if Uniqua from The Backyardigans suddenly walked into the place.  Suddenly he understood our excitement (though Uniqua is animated so it’s not a perfect example).  It took us a while to settle down from that thrill of a lifetime.

And now life is back to normal.  No more celebrity sitings, no more mountain climbing, no more ocean gazing, no more driving, no more electrical problems … until next time!  Because I’ve noticed that about life:  For good or bad, there’s always a next time.

‘

Here’s two Hucks exactly one year apart on the Coney Island Beach wearing the same white shirt:

Oh spring break.  You’re adorable!

The Tacketts Four (T4) just kicked off our spring break with four days and nights of non-stop fun.  We doubt the rest of the break will compare to our time with them, but at least we’ve got the memories and pictures galore!  It all began on Tuesday when they arrived via Washington, D.C. in time to pick Huck up from the school bus stop.  In honor of the occasion, they all dressed in orange, his favorite color.  What a family!  From there we began our whirlwind adventure which included playgrounds, parks, ice cream treats, Huck’s surprise Flash Mob at school (see previous blog), Huck’s final science class for this session wherein we all got to participate (Lily makes a mean catapult), New York pizza, rock climbing and bedtime stories.  And as if all this wasn’t exciting enough, we also spent a couple afternoons with Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Dottie and second cousin Bryce who were also in NYC for spring break!  We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island under my truly substandard leadership, and Troy joined us for a delicious dinner in Little Italy.  On Good Friday there were Easter eggs to be filled for Sunday’s big after church hunt (might as well put the kids to work), followed by a visit to Times Square and Central Park where Aunt Dottie, Nathan and I got some much needed Middle Child bonding time.  Back at home Lily and Huck enjoyed manicures as well as a Laundry Party with their moms (which resulted in underwear hats), and Jeni and Troy finally got some quality “Stove Time” while the rest of us slept in a bit.  Oh, sure, T4 met the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden during their D.C. stay, but here in NYC they were treated to a lifesize Johnny Depp made of Legos, a Ripley’s Believe it or Not sword swallower, a Morgan Freeman wax statue, a guy dressed as the Statue of Liberty, about 29 guys dressed as Elmo … and to top it off Noah was chosen to star in one of those aggressive acrobatics shows down in Battery Park.  When asked how that compared to meeting the Veep, Noah replied with an enthuasiastic: “It’s gettin’ close.”  MY JOB IS DONE HERE!

After T4 left S3 sadly waving goodbye from the sidewalk this morning, Huck asked me to print a picture of Aunt Jeni so he could snuggle with it.  Then he sighed, climbed into my lap and decided that snuggling with me in real life was probably better than snuggling with a picture.  Aunt Jeni has really spoiled us this year …

(Thanks for bringing the whole fam this time, Sissy.)

(Secret “M” signal for Middle Children Only.  We hope Uncle Ronnie is okay back there.)

For the past few weeks Huck has talked about a special surprise the first graders were cooking up for this morning’s Town Meeting.  He was obviously very excited about whatever it was and told me I had to bring the camera.  Since he’s never used such wonderful language I knew this was going to be good.  And best yet, the entire Tackett family would be able to come too!  All six of us accompanied Huck to school this morning (quite the entourage) and then took our place in the school gym waiting for town meeting to start.  Students filed in and we couldn’t help but notice that all of the first graders were suddenly wearing colorful t-shirts.  Before the big reveal, principal Camille took the microphone and began a serious talk about the restrooms and how they were too messy and that everyone needed to do their part to keep them cleaner, when suddenly loud music filled the room.  Camille was very confused by this unexpected turn of events, when suddenly the gym was transformed into an amazing dance party!

Now of course this was a delightful and very entertaining surprise for all of us, but I found myself yet again at a Muscota Town Meeting getting a little choked up.  Huck’s got the academics down and he probably always will.  He knows all the answers and is a natural leader (borderline bossy know-it-all) in the classroom.  But his teacher Marilyn wanted to help him become more comfortable in his body.  Their class enjoys dance parties occasionally (complete with disco ball), and while Huck enjoys the atmosphere of it, he feels embarrassed to actually participate.  Most of his classmates really know how to dance, some even breakdance, but he tends to hang back.  So after weeks of rehearsal and surprise-keeping, there he was with his people in front of the entire school, unembarrassed and moving his body in ways I’ve never seen.

Thank you, Marilyn.

And here’s another view …

Last weekend was the always delightful and impressive Washington Heights Jazz Choir concert, led by the fantastic Louise Rogers.  I picked out a nice shirt, pants, belt and dress shoes for Huck to wear, to which he responded: “Beautiful.”  It’s important for a jazz singer to look nice for his public.  Our special friend Susan came all the way from Brooklyn yet again for the concert (these are her people) and we parents got to end the show by singing backup to “Summertime,” which made us all feel just a little bit more like Ella Fitzgerald.

Last night we went to the first ever Muscota Museum of Art (MUMA).  Huck’s awesome art teacher Sasha came up with this idea as a way to raise some much needed funds for the art program at Muscota.  Over the last few months she has talked to the students about what it means to sell their art, as well as what it means to begin their very own art collection.  Each piece was on sale for $20 and we were encouraged not to purchase our own child’s work.  As hard as it was to pass up Huck’s “Roman Numeral Division” mixed media drawing, we instead bought his classmate Camilla’s beautiful work of art which is now proudly hanging on Huck’s bedroom wall.  He’s had his eye on her drawing for weeks now and was hoping it would be his.  It was very fun to see Huck’s reaction to his drawing being bought by classmate Felicia (pictured below with her new art and the artist).  When all was said and done, every single piece of art was sold and nearly $6000 was raised!  I’ve said it thousands of times before and I’ll say it again: I love Muscota and I always will!