Kindergarten Best-Friend Drama and Preschool Graduation – Ep. 319

Shanna

Hi, welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week's episode, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Throwback, where Laura tells the story of her very first best friendship. And we wrap it up with our weekly BFPs and the offense. Let's get started. Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 319. Hi, Laura. Hi, Shanna. Hello. It's been so long since I've spoken to you.

Laura

Yeah, it's a whole week.

Shanna

A whole week, oh my gosh. So tell me what happened in those seven days since I spoke to you last.

Laura

Well, this week we had an event at Sebastian's preschool. It was his graduation slash moving up ceremony for his classroom, his preschool classroom. Oh, is he moving to a new classroom? Is he graduating? No. Oh, okay.

Shanna

So it's not like he was sitting and watching his friends graduate like he was actually participating in the event.

Laura

Well what they do is they just have a little certificate for every kid that's there and it says like their name and what they're going to do next year where they're going to go. And also a little quote and I'm going to read you Sebastian's quote.

Shanna

Okay. My mind is really going in circles wondering who this quote is from. Is it going to be a great thinker from history? Is it going to be one of his teachers?

Laura

I should clarify that it's a quote that the kid said. So it's something the kid said that they put on the little graduation certificate.

Shanna

adorable here.

Laura

I'll actually just send it to you so you can read it out to us. So I just sent you a picture I snapped of the little certificate. It was cute because they like had the teachers stand up and they read it out loud and they had the kid run up and get it and it was very sweet.

Shanna

Okay, this is very cute. It's like a completion ceremony. All right, I'm reading this cold. Here we go. This certificate goes to Sebastian. Quote, one of my favorite memories this year was building the Millennium Falcon in the block area. Oh, that's cute. That's a great quote. Are you sure that's not from Albert Einstein?

Laura

I'm pretty sure Maya Angelou said it actually.

Shanna

She did love Star Wars.

Laura

Isn't that the thing where it's like there's all these quotes that are just attributed to her that she didn't say that people just add her name to the end of anything? Oh, poor Maya. It was really cute too because you could tell just by, you know, forensic science who was friends with whom because there was like a group of little kids who all said my favorite thing was playing Star Wars in the block area. It's like, hmm, I think I know who your friends are.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh, that's really adorable.

Laura

But it was really sweet. They actually made it into a little carnival party. So they had a balloon artist and a face painter. But yeah, it was very fun. I will say a little confusing for the preschoolers because we still have another week of school.

Shanna

Oh, that too. And don't they go all summer? They have a two week break.

Laura

Yeah, so there's a two-week break between the quote-unquote school years, but you know, they were all asking, you know, when we come back, when's school? Like, you know, people are saying bye to each other. It's like, you're going to see him tomorrow. This was on a Wednesday.

Shanna

It does have a very final feeling to it. Yes.

Laura

Yeah. But there are actually a lot of friends that were moving on to like TK. So it was a nice little party to celebrate friends who are not going to see all the time anymore.

Shanna

Yeah, that's nice.

Laura

You know, but I will say I am very relieved that he's going to the same classroom again because I'm not sure my heart can handle a big change right now. I don't know. I just feel like I was at this graduation thing and seeing, you know, the parents of his little friends who I've known for a long time. You know, a lot of these parents I've known for two or three years now because Augie had been in the same school and, you know, where kids have been in and out of classrooms together. And I saw parents whose kids were leaving preschool for good. And I had this like flash forward to a year from now. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to be a fucking wreck. I've done four straight years in the same preschool and I love it. It's like my, you know, comfort, right? It's my security blanket of a school. It's like, feels so nice there. I know that the kids are so well taken care of.

Shanna

I'm not ready. Oh, it is such a transition to go from the safety net of preschool into the general population of elementary school. It's just, it's a big change. So I totally hear you on that.

Laura

Yeah. And it's really more about like the recognizing of your kids getting older, you know, like I feel like with a lot of these big transitions with Augie, I always just kind of knew like, well, I've got Sebastian, you know, to still go through that transition. I'm not out of the toddler phase yet. I'm not out of the preschool phase yet. You know, all that stuff. It's like, well, I don't have to feel my feelings on this yet because we're still doing it. Right.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

But like once your final kid gets out of that preschool, it's like, oh, OK, that's real. You know what I mean? Like that's, it might be the first real obvious transition, like very like, you know, like obviously we, I had my last infant, I had my last real toddler, you know, he's a preschooler now. It's like, and all that stuff happened, but it's not like one day really happened, you know, it's a more gradual transition. But when you have a graduation, you know, like we'll have next year, it'll be like, okay, this is obvious. And I'm a little concerned how I'm going to react in public. Like, am I going to be okay? I don't know.

Shanna

I don't know. You might cry in public. Yes, it's okay to cry in public. I remember drop off at TK last year. There were so many parents crying as they said goodbye to their kids. So yes, yes, it's okay. It's okay. Even if the feelings come, it's okay.

Laura

Yeah. But anyway, that was the happenings this week. I don't have to feel those feelings yet because I've got another year. But let's get back to the present. Let's stop projecting. And I want to hear what's been going on with you this week, Shanna.

Shanna

My check-in this week is about CeCe, and I've been noticing lately that she's really been playing with language a lot. I feel like she's done this in the past. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but I've collected a few of what's going on. What's she saying? What is she expressing that I feel is unique to her recently? And one of them is a whole new series of sick burns that

Shanna

She slings at her sister and us sometimes. And I'm just like, okay, I have never heard that before. You know, some people catch on to modern slang because of social media. In my case, I catch on like years after things become part of the lexicon. I feel like ZC is making shit up on her own. I feel like she's a language trendsetter. And I just need to put some of this stuff out there, okay?

Laura

Okay.

Shanna

Here are some of her sick burns. Take note, if you ever want to really cut someone down to size, okay? Okay, Laura, here is a voice memo of her first one.

Laura

Here, a stinky mullet.

Shanna

Did she say stinky mullet? Stinky mullet. Office in the front, party in the back, okay? That's what we're talking about here. Stinky.

Laura

Does she know what a mullet is?

Shanna

No, no, Laura, no, I said, do you know what a mullet is? Nope, nope, I don't. I taught her. She knows now.

Laura

But you know, a mullet's also a fish, isn't it? Isn't it a type of fish? Is it really? Like, did she hear that somewhere? I think so. Oh. Hold on, let's look. Yes, if you go to the mullet disambiguation page on Wikipedia, there's fish, hairstyle. Oh. But yes, there's a mullet fish. There's multiple types of mullet, fishes. Please tell me its scales are short in the front and party in the back. I mean, you would think, but no, I'm looking at a picture. Molots are gray, molots are a family of ray-finned fish found worldwide. And it just looks like a really normal, shiny silver fish.

Shanna

Okay. And it probably could be very stinky. I am going to continue imagining in my mind a stinky hairdo when she calls us stinky. Oh my gosh. Okay, she has decided that that's not cruel enough. She's taking it a step further, Laura. Okay, here she is with her next one.

Laura

You're a stinky butt mullet. Oh, taking you to the next level with stinky butt mullet.

Shanna

Um, you know, that's a really good question. I feel like it comes in the heat of passion often when they are really squabbling and, you know, going back and forth over something, she's like, you're a stinky butt mullet. But of course, I often laugh at this shit because it's hilarious. Of course, how can you not? Exactly, which encourages her. And then she's like, oh, it's silly also. So it also comes out in playful, silly situations too. Like she'll call Steve a stinky butt mullet and we'll laugh and whatever. So there's a little bit of all of that, I think.

Laura

Okay, I can see how that can evolve into something. I feel like the next step is for it to evolve into like a term of affection. We're going to be like, good night stinky butt mullet. And she's like, good night stinky butt mullet.

Shanna

Yes. And then that will end up being my quote under her picture, her senior year picture in her yearbook in like 2040 or whatever that is. Yeah. Two CECE, our stinky little butt mullet. Best wishes.

Laura

Your grandchild is going to be named butt mullet.

Shanna

So what's interesting is that it seems like there is this fascination with the suffix let, L-E-T, which I know this is in mullet. She doesn't really know what a mullet is. I don't know, but there's let. She's been adding that to a lot of different words lately. And I've noticed that she's doing it in order to indicate that something is smaller than it normally would be. I don't know. So it's like, my little footlet, my little toilet. So here is her next insult that she's come up with.

Laura

You're a little pebblet of cat poop. You're a pebblet of cat poop, okay? Yeah. Like not a pebble, but a pebblet.

Shanna

Yes, exactly. She has turned the word pebble into her own word. Everything now is pebblets. I don't even know. Pebblet of food on the table. And so, yeah, if you are not in her good graces, you're a pebblet of cat poop.

Laura

I love how individualistic language can develop and how, like, if you allow it to happen, she can continue to have pebble it. I feel like we all probably do this to some extent, or many kids start to do this to some extent, and then it gets corrected out of us, right? Right. Like if you were to say, well, Pebble, it's not a word, honey. Are you trying to say Pebble? Or you know, you were trying to correct her, which takes away a lot of this creativity, you know. So I love that you're doing this with her. You're allowing her creativity to blossom. And who's to say what is and isn't a word? I mean, Pebble, I understood it right away. I knew what she was talking about. Yeah.

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. And there is the logic in her mind too. I can see it with like footlet because she has the littlest feet in the house or like when she's talking about the cat's feet, right? The little cat's footlet or whatever. I get it. And I think it's coming out of her mind moves faster than her mouth. Remember she used to be in speech therapy, right? And I always felt like that was part of what was holding her back a little bit. Like she wanted to express so much more than her like mouth was ready to say. And I see this now even though she's fabulous with speech It's like she wants to get out of zinger, right? But like her mind is thinking thinking really fast in her mouth is not moving fast enough and she wants to call someone something and it's like Pebble it

Laura

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's so interesting. Also the competition with the older sibling who's extremely verbal and also pretty witty. Mm-hmm. In a way, I'm jealous because it's like a perfect incubator to become like a super clever comedian, you know?

Laura

If you want to set it up, you know, if you want to become a comedian without a lot of trauma, this is what you do, right? You just have, like, an older sister who's also really witty and very talkative to have to compete with, right?

Shanna

Yes. Yes, exactly. It's a big fast. You have to talk fast. You have to get your ideas out fast. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And this last zinger, I have no clue where this came from. It's not related to mullet or pebblet or anything, but the other day, and she said this to me, Mama, you're ahead of cabbage. And I'm just like, what? I can't even think of the last time I even fed her cabbage.

Laura

So I don't know. Could she spot a cabbage in the store, you think? No, she'd probably think it's lettuce.

Shanna

It is. It is. It's a great word.

Laura

Yeah, so. Wow. Did you have to go cry for a little bit after that? Did you have to recover?

Shanna

I did. And you better watch out and be nice to me, Laura, or I'm going to start calling you ahead of cabbage.

Laura

Full of fiber.

Shanna

Oh my gosh. So yeah, that's that's what's going on in our world. Just a little language exploration and daggers to the heart.

Laura

It's like a comedy central roast every time we come to your house now.

Shanna

Yeah, for sure.

Laura

I'd like to see CeCe do an actual roast and just go up to the podium and it's like some famous person. And she's like, David Hasselhoff, you pebblet of cabbage. There's a crowd with roar. They'd be like, ooh, she got you. She's like, that's right, I am. He is a pebblet of cabbage.

Shanna

I don't know anything about David Hasselhoff.

Laura

Well, I hope to come over and get roasted sometime soon.

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. You'll be first on the list. We'll set it up, get the microphone out and have her go to town on you.

Laura

But in the meantime, I feel like it might be time to move on to our special segment.

Shanna

Oh, yeah.

Laura

Okay. So my throwback is inspired by a play date that we had this week. So Augie is off school, as you know, and he is missing his little best friend that he made in TK, who we're going to call Theo. He has been missing Theo so much. And he has been begging me to have a play date with Theo. Like every day, he's like, when's Theo coming over? Can we go to Theo's house? Like, can we have a play date with Theo? And Theo has been traveling. So we haven't been able to. But finally Theo was back and his mom was like, we should get together. And I was like, yes, we absolutely should. Do you guys want to come over? We'll blow up the inflatable pool on the back and have a play date. And she was like, yes, let's do it, right? Let's get these kids together. And I told Augie that Theo was going to come over and he was just so excited. He had all these plans.

Shanna

You were, oh my gosh, that's adorable.

Laura

Yes, I had this best friend named Brooke in kindergarten who I guess it was just an instant bond like Augie and Theo had. It was one of those things where according to our parents, we were like constantly giggling in class and they had to kind of separate us because we wouldn't pay attention. We were just like basically exactly what Augie and Theo were doing, just like so activated by each other's presence that we couldn't stop laughing. And it became kind of like, Laura in the family, like, oh, Laura and Brooke are, you know, the giggle twins, like all this stuff, right? And I just remember how special it felt to have like a best friend, you know, and like how obsessed I was with Brooke and all this stuff, right? And we were just constantly together when we were at school.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

But at this playdate, as Augie and Theo are running around like maniacs, I'm chatting with Theo's mom, who is very lovely and I really like her. And we were just talking and she told me some bombshell news, which was that Theo was getting skipped ahead to first grade.

Shanna

What?

Laura

Yeah, so Theo has like a September, early September birthday. So he was always the oldest kid in the class. And I guess at the end of the TK year, the director of the school was like, if you want, we think he's ready and you know, he's just passed the cutoff date. So if you want to skip him ahead to first grade, you can. And I knew this was a possibility because his mom had told me that that might be happening and that they had the option and they were weighing it. But I didn't know if it was going to happen for sure. And then at this play date, she confirmed like we decided we're going to put him into first grade. Well, my heart sank for Augie because even though they're going to be in the same school on the same campus, I knew at that moment that like, oh, they're never going to be in class again. You know, they're not going to be there. They're now like not in the same track.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

So to my knowledge, I showed up completely unaware. and was devastated. I'm telling you, when I say I was devastated, I was like balling all day. I just remember sobbing at the kidney table. And then I remember later on at lunchtime sobbing because I couldn't have lunch with her. And then like, I just remember all day just being in mourning basically because also to a kid, especially in the 80s, but when we didn't have FaceTime and stuff, she was gone, right? Right. Brooke not being in my first grade class meant she was gone. I'm not seeing her maybe ever again. And it was a huge loss for me.

Shanna

Aw, that's so sad.

Laura

I know, right? It is sad. So remembering this really informed how I decided to talk to Augie about Theo moving to first grade. You know, my first instinct is like, just forget it, right? Like, talk to him later about it, maybe spring it on him right before class. Like, just tell him all we told you that you guys might not be in the same class this year. You know, try to not make a big deal out of it, basically, right? But I remembered how how blindsided I was by this and how devastated I was by this. And so I decided, no, I need to really properly prep Augie for what's going to happen, for knowing that now we know for sure that they're not going to be in the same class and not just that, they're not going to be in the same year anymore. They're not going to be in the same grade anymore.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

I need to like really help him understand this so that he can move on. And not move on. It's not saying he can't be friends with Theo, you know what I mean? Like I'm just saying like he needs to be prepared so that when he walks into class on day one, he's not looking around for him and then wondering where he is, right? Right. So the next day, I didn't want to take away the shine of the playdate that day. So I decided the next day to bring it up. And in some quiet moment, I was talking to Augie and Theo came up in conversation, you know, he was like, oh, Theo and I did this, you know, we were playing this blah, blah, blah, whatever. Lots of times he tells me very long stories about things they did. And I'm like, I don't, I'm not following half of this, but sure. We were playing on this and then we were attacking the girls team because the boys team is better.

Shanna

Oh, okay.

Laura

And I told him, you know what? I know this feeling really, really well because I had a best friend in kindergarten. Did you know that I had a best friend in kindergarten? He's like, no. I was like, yep. And I said I had a best friend in kindergarten. And then when I went next year to first grade, she wasn't there. And I was like, and I cried and I cried and I was so sad. And then I was like, but guess what? The year after that, we actually did end up going to the same school and we were in the same class. So I guess she had changed to a magnet school for first grade. They didn't like it. And then we both ended up at the same magnet school for second grade.

Shanna

Oh.

Laura

And I told him, you know what? So we did second grade together and third grade together and actually went all through elementary school together. And then we did middle school together and then we did high school together. And then guess what? We even did college together. And he was like, what? And I told him the happy ending that my best friend from kindergarten, whose name is actually Danielle, was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding.

Shanna

Oh my gosh, I didn't know that about you and Danielle. I mean, obviously I've known Danielle for years, but I didn't know you met in kindergarten and then had the saga and then looked reuniting.

Laura

Oh, what a journey. I was struggling with saying the wrong name the whole time, but I wanted to surprise you with this story, because I knew that if I had mentioned Danielle's name from the beginning, you would say, oh yeah, Danielle, I was with Bridesmaid in your wedding. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I just thought it was such a, you know, nice mirror. And I was able to tell him, look, you know, like this may not be typical, but my best friend from kindergarten is still one of my absolute best friends. We went all the way through school together. We ended up going to college together, which wasn't entirely of my doing. But you know, I'm sure I had an influence on I went a year before her. So I'm sure there was a little bit of an influence there. She was like, well, Laura, is that read?

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

And, you know, we've stayed close all this time. We don't talk all the time anymore. Part of it is because we're both moms now. She actually just had her first baby about six months ago. So we've been able to talk about being moms together and all this stuff. So, you know, there is hope, I think, for Augie and Theo. They could be groomsmen in each other's weddings someday.

Shanna

So based on that experience, what do you think are some key factors in your long-lasting friendship? What helped make that solidify? Because as a mom, I'm like, if I don't do the legwork of texting other parents and getting these kids together, they will never be friends again. I get very stressed out about that. But like you said, our parents back then didn't have all of that in that constant communication.

Laura

So what was it that made it last you think well i mean a lot of it is coincidence we ended up being in the same schools and all that you know a lot of the same classes like i'm trying to remember i feel like it was second. Fourth and six we were in the same class me like that you know what i mean we ended up being in the same circles. Her dad was a physician in Fresno. It's not a big town, you know, so everyone kind of knows each other in the medical world over there. But I will say, I think one major factor is that our moms became best friends too.

Shanna

Definitely want to hear those stories sometimes.

Laura

Oh my gosh, they're so funny. Her dad is very loud and outgoing and brash and my dad was more reserved and quiet and not as... My dad was extroverted in a way, but not in a loud way. He liked talking to people in small groups, that sort of thing, right? While her dad is loud and outgoing and all this stuff, right?

Shanna

Okay.

Laura

One thing I really remember is like, my dad was very particular about his food. He didn't like chewing sounds. He didn't like sharing food, that sort of thing. And I remember when we were in Costa Rica, we were all on this big long table all eating as a family. Danielle has two sisters who were there. So it was like a bunch of, you know, five kids, four adults. It was loud, blah, blah. I just remember Danielle's dad, you know, my dad got his food. He got his plate and he's like trying to just eat with all this noise around him. And I remember Danielle's dad saying, that looks good. Let me try and he just like stuck his fork right in my dad's food and like helped himself to some of it. Oh, my dad was just like, get me off of this trip.

Shanna

Oh, I can just picture your dad's face just like wide eyes. Like, what did you just do?

Laura

And Danielle's dad was always telling my dad to lighten up.

Shanna

Oh, people love hearing that. Oh, that's great.

Laura

Oh, yeah, it works every time.

Shanna

Every time.

Laura

But yeah, so I do think that might be part of the secret sauce. But you know, I think about, like, once we got to our teenage years, it was completely independent. You know, we were just buddies and we were just friends. There's just probably something about our personality types that mesh, you know what I mean like we we just found that right combo where we've managed to keep our friendship going for so long never really had any fights or anything so yeah, yeah, so I just you know I wanted to let Augie know that and Augie I don't know how much he absorbed. I don't think he really understands the concept of college, to be honest. But I said, you know, we went all the way through elementary school together and all the way through high school. And he was like, wow. So, yeah. And I was like, do you remember Danielle? She's come to visit a couple of times. You know, I showed her a picture.

Shanna

You really can. And these kids, at least my kids, really are so preoccupied with who is going to be in their class the next year. I mean, they won't stop talking about it. Is someone still going to be in my class? This shows that all the little best friends they want to move on together. And Elle has been in class with her BFF since kindergarten. I don't know. I thought all of this was completely random. But she's moved on every single grade with her BFF. And she's expecting to go into third grade with this person. And I'm just like, I don't know.

Laura

Yeah, for sure. Although I have to say that I think even if Theo wasn't going on to first grade that they might not have ended up in class together because I found out that at their school, the teachers all get together at the end of the school year and basically like, I don't know, it's like baseball player trading, they like discuss who needs to be moved. And like, I guess they try to make good classrooms where there isn't a lot of conflict. And so they'll like discuss, oh, you know, so-and-so and so-and-so need to be separated or whatever. So I had a real gut feeling that there was just no world where they were going to end up in the same classroom.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

But yeah, this just clinches it.

Shanna

Yes. Well, that strategizing is smart.

Laura

Man, to be a fly on the wall at that meeting, though. Oh.

Shanna

I know, I know. The teachers at our school do the same thing. And I've always just been dying to know what gets said, what gets said about my kids.

Laura

But anyway, that is my throwback story. I hope you enjoyed it. I loved it. And I hope the M Night Shyamalan twist ending was satisfying to you.

Shanna

I love a twist ending. And I didn't see it coming. You gave no indication, which is how I like it.

Laura

But anyway, shall we move on to our final segment?

Shanna

Oh yeah.

Laura

All right, so we close every episode with a Big Fat Positive or a big fat negative from the week. And Shanna, you're up first. Do you have a BFP or a BFN?

Shanna

I have a BFP. Yay. Yay. So Ella's a rising third grader, you know, and it's so cute because I feel like she's really starting to be interested in style, fashion, like just like those kinds of things that she just ignored when she was younger, right? And she was recently in the production of Frozen and occasionally in the past when she's done shows and plays I've put like a tiny bit of makeup on her like maybe a little bit of eye shadow or something because a lot of the other kids put on makeup for the performance. And for this performance, she just really wanted some makeup, and she was a princess, and she just wanted something to razzle-dazzle herself. So we went to the drug store before her show, and I let her pick out some makeup. And she picked out a lipstick, and I was trying to kind of guide her towards the more muted colors. And she's like, I want this one.

Laura

Yeah. The first time I had though was like, how does she play on her iPad now? Cause anytime I've ever had nails and then I go to type something on my phone, I'm like, Dang, this doesn't work.

Shanna

I know, it's really difficult. We actually, the iPads are out of commission, so they haven't been using those for a while. Probably for the best. Probably. But when she uses my phone to take pictures and stuff, I could see her trying to like, you know, how to use the pad of her finger.

Laura

So cute. Yeah, I love that. I, you know, this is one of those things that I don't think I'm going to have to navigate as the mom of two boys. But who knows? I do know that the boys actually love to put on makeup when I'm putting on makeup, which is rarely. But I'm trying to take a little bit better care of my skin. So I'll put like blush and mascara on. some days. And if I'm doing that in front of them, they're like, I want makeup. So I like hand them my makeup sponge and they start doing it.

Shanna

Oh, so cute.

Laura

But yeah, we'll see. But for now, that's pretty fun. Are you are like, how long did those press on nails last?

Shanna

About 10 hours.

Laura

Yeah, that's good. Did she leave you a good tip at the nail salon?

Shanna

No, she's a terrible tipper. She left me nothing, Laura, nothing. She called me a pebblet of cat poop. No, just kidding.

Laura

such a cabbage head thing to do, man.

Shanna

I know, I know. So yeah, that's my BFP just kind of her comment her own self expression. What about you? What do you got for us?

Laura

Well, I don't know. Is it a BFN turned BFP? What is it? We'll find out when I tell the story.

Shanna

I love a mysterious BFN.

Laura

It's a BFN. So I feel like it started as a BFP in that I got discounted brick fest tickets from Augie's elementary school fundraiser auction thing they did last year.

Shanna

Mm-hmm. You guys went and watched a bunch of masons make brick walls? Honestly, I would love that.

Laura

I actually would love to watch people make bricks. I've watched videos on YouTube of people making bricks, like adobe bricks out of mud, and that's meditative for me.

Shanna

Yeah, that sounds satisfying.

Laura

But no, this was a Lego, an unofficial unauthorized Lego festival that was happening in Pasadena, the Pasadena Convention Center. And we had gone with Augie when he was like, I don't know, 10 months old or something. I think we mostly went just for Corey. And it was kind of cool. And so when I saw that they had these breakfast tickets on the auction, I was like, awesome, I can get these for 50% off. No one had been on them yet. So I was like, let's do that. We'll go as a family. I want to go anyway. So this week was Brickfest and I had kind of hyped it up to the kids. I was like, Saturday's Brickfest. We're going to go to Brickfest. It's like a big Lego festival. Like I looked up on the website all the things they had, like the world's largest Lego pool, which is just like a huge bin full of Legos and all these building stations and characters and large Lego sculptures and stuff.

Shanna

Okay, let's see. Oh my gosh. Costco shoppers lined up outside standing six feet apart. Are they wearing masks? Yep. Yep. Yep. They are. Oh, boy. Oh, brings me back. Oh, this one has tons of toilet paper rolls in her shopping cart.

Laura

Yeah. Clever. So funny. So there's, you know, clever stuff like that or kits. And we thought it was cool. The BFN is that The boys could not get over the fact that there was a store selling Legos right there, right? Of course there was. It was a gift shop, right? Of course there's a Lego shop, right? And we knew this going in. I tried and I tried to prep them, right? Like I thought, okay, I know this going in. I know they're going to be obsessed with getting Legos. Like let's give them a budget. We'll say, you know, you have a $30 budget and that's it, right? And we'll take care of that. So we get in and at first they don't want to look at anything. They just want to go to the store and they're like whining and hanging off us and just be like, I want to go to the store. And so I finally I was like, you know what, let's go buy our Legos first, right?

Shanna

Oh my gosh. Diving into a ball pit of Legos sounds so painful.

Laura

It was not comfortable. I'll say that, but I was like desperate for the selfie.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh, look at that selfie. OK, worth it. Worth it. You may have walked away with some one piece of Legos lodged in your ear because you're lying on your side on this pile, but definitely worth it.

Laura

You can tell I have like a strong grip around smashing because I was like, will you just take this picture with me? But anyway, while we're off doing this, they build their thing, then we go see that they're about to race. So we go over to watch the race. The race is on and Augie's car kind of falls apart midway and that meant Corey won the race. Uh-oh.

Shanna

He was not okay with that. Yeah, I didn't see that going anywhere good. Yeah.

Laura

Yeah. And I want to just like, man, like, does everything have to be a fight today? You know, does everything have to be a struggle? So we finally threw in the towel and we're like, we got to go home. Like this is, this is ridiculous. We actually, in order to save our sanity, ended up popping into a Mexican restaurant that was right across the street and having some margaritas and enchiladas while the kids watched YouTube on our phones because we're like, we got to reset. And then It ended with this scene.

Shanna

Oh, Sebastian is sleeping in his car seat with his Lego kid on his lap.

Laura

Yes. His Lego kid is his new Luffy and he passed out. But yeah, so that's my BFP BFN, the Brick Fest in Pasadena. If your kids are less whiny than mine, maybe you'll have fun next time it comes to town. It's like a touring thing, so I think it's all over the country.

Shanna

Yeah. You know, I think it's real rude of those organizers to put that store right at the beginning. Dude.

Laura

Put it in the back corner, please. I mean, I know they want to make money and it's very effective, but like everywhere, every Museum, I know exit through the gift shop is a whole thing, but it's like a concept that we all understand. And yet, as a parent, it's so rude. At Disneyland, the Buzz Lightyear ride gives you like two directions to leave. You can either leave through the Buzz Lightyear ride gift shop, or you can like, skirt around it. And for the longest time, I was able to skirt around it. And last time we were there, Sebastian was like, where are you going? Where are you going? We need toys.

Shanna

That's good. That's good.

Laura

But anyway, I think that's it for me and I think it's it for our show. Alessiauna, do you have a five star review to read for us? Laura, I don't.

Shanna

What? I know. I know. Listeners, you may have noticed we haven't been reading five star reviews recently because they've slowed down. I know it's summer. Everything is so busy. But remember, if you leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast, we'll read it on an upcoming episode. So send one in. You've got a real good chance of hearing it in the next couple of weeks. So head on over to Apple Podcast. Leave us those five stars. Say a few things you love about the show. It really helps us grow our audience and show new listeners that they can trust the Big Fat Positive podcast. And if you have any thoughts, comments, feedback, questions for us, we would love to hear from you. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We're on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook at BFB Podcast. We have a website, BigBatPositivePodcast.com. And if you want to send us an email, you can always include a voice memo in there. We love those. Just send us a contact at BigBatPositivePodcast.com. And finally, if you want to get some exclusive content from me and Shanna, and maybe I'll post some pictures of me and Danielle as little kids on there this week. And you want to join just the coolest group of people on the internet. Search Facebook for Big Fat Positive Community. It's a private group, so you got a request to join. And you got to answer those two membership questions so we know you're not a robot. But once you do that, we'll send you straight through to all the amazing and wonderful conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a Big Fat Positive week. Bye. Bye.