Sleepovers with Ryan

Generally, sleepovers would happen on Fridays, after school.  Gaby would pick up Zack and Ryan from the front of the school, where they would already be deeply ensconced in some role playing game.  Ryan’s sleepover kit was a toothbrush, which Dede always seemed to keep handy.

Invariably, Ryan would be dressed in scuba-chic.  Scuba-chic is a well known Santa Cruz clothing style made up of a rash guard, shorts, and shoes/socks that seem to somehow attach magnetically, going on and off with the flip of switch.

There was only one friend that Zack would ever invite over for a sleepover, Ryan.  And there was only one friend where Zack would go for a sleepover, Ryan.

This fashion ensemble was important around our place, because the first game back at our house generally involved toy guns.  The boys’ winter game was Nerf dart guns, beginning with pistols and by the end battery powered multi-shot rifles with the darts whistling through the air.  The Nerf darts have a Velcro like substance on the tips, and they stick wonderfully to rash guards.  While Zack could argue about whether or not he was hit, Ryan had the misfortune of direct evidence stuck to his shirt.  In summer, the scuba-chic was even more important, because Nerf guns were exchanged for Super Soaker water guns.  They would blast each other from the lawns, from the tree house, perhaps needing to be reminded that the guns did not need to come inside the house, and eventually one of them would escalate the battle to using the hose.  As parents we loved this game, as it was one of the few ways we could actually get Zack clean each week.  Ryan never seemed to care if he was wet or dry, he just wanted to play.  When the boys looked like drowned rats, we would give them a towel and dry off.  Zack would have to change clothes, but Ryan’s ensemble seemed to instantly dry and they would move indoors.

Indoors, they might play a game of Magic, a card game that defies description.  In Magic, the rules seem to be shared by no two players, and it is mainly your imagination that drives the game.  Perhaps you know the rules or know kids who do, but Ryan and Zack played best with their own version of the rules, which generally was pure anarchy.  When Zack drew from his deck a Platinum Angel, and removed some card of Ryan’s through a complex mathematical formula, Ryan was quick to object and yell, “Prove it!”.  This would leave Zack in shock, wondering how the clarity of linear algebra, geometry and calculus was not self-evident in why the mythic rare Platinum Angel would of course remove the Swamp Thing.  As parents, we could watch, but we were powerless to adjudicate the situation, as we simply didn’t understand it.  So, rather than enter the world of advanced mathematics, we would quickly suggest that time for Magic was over, and it was snack time.

After snacks the boys would move to their next imagination game, that generally involved tearing apart the living room furniture.  They loved to remove the pillows from the couches and beds, remove all the quilts from the closet, open up the sleeper-sofa, and commence to building forts.  Once fully assembled, our older son Will would often come in, wanting to enter the inner sanctum of the castle and become of a member of the tribe.  This was rarely tolerated by Ryan and Zack, who saw themselves as the Two Musketeers and unwilling to allow a third to join.  However, the exclusivity generally resulted in the destruction of the fort and the need to move on another diversion, dinner…

Ryan was a terrific dinner guest, he would eat anything.  However, his favorite meal at our place was tacos.  Ryan saw tacos as a challenge, and he had in his head that a good kid should eat a lot of tacos.  Zack generally eats one or two tacos.  Ryan prided himself on asking everyone at the table, pretending to have forgotten since his last visit, “Who has eaten the most tacos?  How many?”  When he learned the record was held by our older son Will, and that it was 5 tacos, Ryan took this as a personal challenge each time and set out to eat 5 tacos, or at least he threatened to.  Everyone at the table necessarily ate however many tacos were on their plates, it was a matter of honor after all since Ryan was going to go for 5, we couldn’t just eat one and a half or leave any left-overs on the plate.  Ryan was an honored member at our table, he made everyone a member of the “clean plate club!”

In the mornings, Ryan’s favorite breakfast at our place was waffles.  We have an old 1950s waffle iron, and it makes 4 square waffles at a time.  Zack and Ryan, somehow rejuvenated from the taco extravaganza the night before, would dream up ever more exotic ways to eat their waffles, and they never stopped at one.  The pinnacle of decadence was a buttered waffle with chocolate chips in every indentation and whip cream on top.  The boys would pack away as many waffles as they could, and about that time Dede would call to mention that she was in the neighborhood (she was perpetually nearby, because of all the activities the family was involved in).  Luke was generally in the car with her, and always reading a book that was so good that he would wave from the car but avoid distraction.

Dede invariably offered to take Zack with Ryan back to their place, and Zack and Ryan would immediately be immersed in the wild.  Pigs, turkeys, snakes, bunnies, baby chicks in the bath tub and chickens in the coop.  They loved playing with the animals, and Ryan was always very generous.  Ryan would offer to let Zack have an animal (Zack loved the baby bunnies best) and inform Gaby or me that it was a birthday present and that we should make room for another pet.  We always found some gracious way to keep the baby bunny with its mother, but Ryan had no problem babysitting “Zack’s” bunny at their place.

Left – Another picture of Zack’s last birthday at Great America with Ryan as they show their prize winnings.  Ryan loved the roller coasters, the water park, and they chance to win some crazy stuffed animal.