OLP 022: All the Same Bottles
Introduction:
[Intro audio: “There is a Dark Place,” by Tom Rosenthal]
Jordan:
Hi, I’m Jordan.
Mom (0:00:30):
And I’m mom
Dad:
I’m dad.
Jordan:
And this is Or, Learn Parkour. A podcast about ADHD done by, this episode, one person who has ADHD and two wonderful people who have put up with me for the last 26 years. I’m very excited to have on the show today, my Mom and Dad. Thank you for being here.
Mom:
Hi, everyone!
Dad (0:00:51):
Glad to be here, sweetheart.
Mom (0:00:53):
Thank you for having us.
Jordan:
Of course, of course. So I wanted to have you on the show to get the outsider perspective, parent perspective of what it’s like to have a kid with ADHD. There’s a lot of resources out there for if your child gets diagnosed young, if you have a hyperactive young boy, a lot of the parent resources are sort of geared towards that experience, but given that I was diagnosed when I was 25, I think. I’m so old. Later in life, that is 24, was it 24? Okay, thank you. I’m glad someone can keep track of that ’cause I can’t anymore. Given that I was diagnosed later, I wanted to hear from you what it was like to deal with that as a kid, did you ever notice anything? Were you surprised when I told you that I had ADHD? What was that experience like for you guys?
Dad (0:01:49):
Yeah, we’re both definitely surprised, and then in looking back, I could see where it wasn’t probably severe, we can look back and say, oh yeah, I can see that, where maybe there are some concentration issues that maybe we construed as interest issues. She’s not interested in doing that. She’s not paying attention. So looking back, we can definitely see where there was attention deficit, but nothing that we ever thought was severe or it was never brought to our attention, but in looking back and saying, well, maybe that was attention deficit, not just lack of interest in what was before or at the time.
Jordan (0:02:29): That was a very succinct answer. Thank you, dad.
Dad (0:02:33):
Well, thank you very much. I do what I can.
Jordan
It’s like you’ve been practicing.
Dad:
Actually, no, that was straight off the cuff.
Jordan (0:02:40):
Right off the dome.
Dad (0:02:42):
Off the dome.
Jordan (0:02:43):
Look at you go. How on earth am I the person in the family who has a podcast? Mom, does that sound like your experience? What did you think?
Mom:
Yeah, that’s exactly it. So a little bit surprised, but then, yeah, there were a few things like doing your home or things that nobody wants to be interested in.
Dad:
Cleaning your room.
Mom:
But finding out later, I guess we managed somehow to deal with it fairly well all those years and you’re finding relief in doing what you’re doing. So that’s pretty cool.
Dad (0:03:17):
Yeah, definitely thankful that you did recognize that there, even as a parent, you’re still an outsider to a certain extent, you know your children well, we had a close relationship your entire life, and we’re thankful for that, but we’re not inside your head, and so I could certainly see where you had concerns that we didn’t notice or discern, but we’re definitely thankful that you found treatment for it and it seems to be helping, and we definitely have noticed a difference in personality that has been positive in you. We didn’t see any deficits ever, except maybe not cleaning your room.
Jordan (0:03:58):
Tell me how you really feel, dad.
Dad (0:04:00):
But actually, we came to realize that that was your comfort zone, that although when you did clean you did a spectacular job, we did come to realize that that was just how you were more comfortable and we were okay with that too.
Jordan (0:04:17):
Well, thank you. I do wanna tell you though, I did make my bed today.
Dad:
Wow.
Mom:
Look at that.
Jordan:
Old dogs can learn new tricks. Just the one though, I’m not showing you the rest of my room.
Mom:
Your MO as a child was all the blankets on the bed, every blanket that you could get your hands on, your blankets, my blankets, Ross’s blankets, any blankets all on your bed and you’d make this great big nest-like thing and be in the middle and underneath all the blankets.
Jordan:
That’s the correct way to sleep in a bed. I don’t know what you’re trying to say? I only have seven pillows on my bed right now.
Mom:
You’ve come so far, you really have. And how many blankets?
Jordan:
Right now, only two actually, but that’s because it’s stupid, in Chicago right now, it is 73 degrees, 90% humidity. It’s a bad time, but when we had blessed, blessed air conditioning, yeah, of course, I would have an appropriate number of blankets on my bed. So aside from, sorry, what was it, dad, that you said I had a problem with? I don’t think I caught that.
Dad (0:05:38):
I can’t really remember, but it seems like cleaning your room.
Jordan:
Right, right, right. Sorry, aside from cleaning my room, were there any particular habits or even moments that you thought of and had new clarity on or went oh, that explains it.
Dad (0:06:00):
You know, I think being as that we are similar personalities, I would not be surprised if I went down and got tested that I would also test positive for ADHD because my mind has always tended to wonder. Wander?
Mom:
Can’t focus.
Jordan:
Probably both, wonder and wander.
Dad:
So for me, in your life, I just saw it as being a kid and being my kid, and that I knew that I had a wandering mind, ’cause I was the same way as a kid and as a young adult. If you don’t know that you have a diagnosable condition and that’s just the way you are, and then your kid is the same way, you don’t know any different.
Jordan:
Right, that makes sense.
Dad:
I try to make sense.
Jordan (0:06:40):
That’s the best we can do. What about you, mom?
Mom:
You were active, inquisitive, very intelligent from the get-go. You definitely were always going, doing, learning, reading, exploring, adventures, all those things, and it was great. I mean, did we ever think, oh gosh, can we not do another project or another play or another whatever, right now, ’cause from the age of four, when was it? Four, when we had the wedding when we were camping that we all had to play along and then. Yeah, yeah.
Jordan:
That was in the house on Adams and Bar.
Mom:
Okay, no, this is the one when we were camping, there was another wedding. Yeah, you were like, everyone just stopped talking, tomorrow Jason and I are going to get married.
Dad (0:07:40):
Yeah, Jason and I will marry. That was the verbatim proclamation.
Jordan (0:07:46):
From four-year-old me.
Mom:
Yes, so there were many moments where it was like, okay, everybody drop what you’re doing, we’re playing spaceship, or we’re getting married, or you’re the teacher and I’m the kid, or you’re the kid and I’m the teacher or whatever. So there were lots of those fun times and yeah, I guess we just didn’t know anything different, we rolled with it, we thought it was fun.
Jordan:
You did marvelously.
Mom:
So yeah, I don’t know any different. So to me, it was just normal.
Jordan:
Yeah. Well, that’s good. I’m glad that it wasn’t too awful exhausting for you, I guess.
Dad (0:08:28):
Yeah, no, you were active, but kids are active, and I don’t think that your condition as a child, it certainly wasn’t debilitating that we could see. Obviously, you were in the gifted classes at school, you excelled in your drama and music, so it wasn’t something that was debilitating up to that point in your life. Everything that you wanted, I think, to accomplish you were able to get to, while you might have struggles that we didn’t recognize, it certainly wasn’t debilitating to the naked eye, so to say.
Jordan (0:09:05):
Yeah, the main thing that I remember struggling with in school was math class.
Mom:
In middle school.
Jordan:
In middle and high school, do you remember when I had to sit in the counselor’s office and skip class every day so that they would take me out of a pre-Calculus credit I didn’t need.
Mom:
Yeah, middle school and high school, yeah, that’s where maybe it kicked in. I guess little kids are busy, and that’s kind of how little kids learn, is exploring and being wild. In middle school and high school, then they want you to sit in class and do what you’re told.
Jordan:
You have to sit so much.
Mom:
And I’m still not good at that.
Jordan:
You have that fancy bouncy ball ergonomic chair upstairs, don’t you?
Mom:
Yeah, I do.
Jordan:
Do you know that heart keychain that I got you? That’s from a fidget toy store. So when I came home and you were like, this is so fun, I love playing with it during meetings, I was like, aha, I also love playing with all the stuff I bought myself from that website during meetings, ’cause they’re fidget toys.
Mom:
You need to send me the link. I need to load up.
Jordan (0:10:17):
Oh, I will. I’ll shoot it to you, and for everyone listening, I’ll put that on the Twitter. We don’t get money from them, but fidget toy shop, call us. Have your people call our people. We would love that.
Dad:
You have people?
Jordan:
I have people, but I am the people that I have. I just have three separate email addresses. I can be your people.
Mom:
They have a new fidget toy that I think you would love. I’m dying to go buy one, but it’s ridiculous. So it’s like a shape of something, a heart, a dinosaur, a square or whatever, and it’s got these little plastic bubbly things that like you push on and then it pokes out the other side, and so you can poke them all out one way, and then you can go back and poke them all out the other way. On and on and on.
Jordan:
I think instead of matching family tattoos we should have matching family pop fidgets.
Mom:
I think so too. Okay, Christmas.
Jordan:
Alright, we’re doing it. Amazing. I think I’ve seen those before. They look really fun.
Mom:
Don’t they? Yeah, I almost couldn’t leave the store.
Jordan (0:11:22):
Where did you find that?
Mom:
Can I say the- it rhymes with draft and it’s a warehouse.
Jordan:
It’s not even a chain outside of Washington.
Mom:
I think so, yeah. Craft Warehouse.
Jordan:
Okay, that’s the warehouse with crafts in it.
Mom:
The warehouse with crafts that’s next to the place that I get my oil changed.
Dad (0:11:47):
We’re so interesting.
Mom (0:11:49):
So yes, we do love the fidget toys.
Jordan:
Looking back, it sounds like it wasn’t super disruptive to you or to our family, but do you think you would do anything different or give your younger selves any advice or any other parents any advice?
Dad (0:12:13):
I don’t know. For me, I don’t know that I could give advice on that particular subject, I got a ton of parenting advice, but just ask me, I’ll tell you.
Jordan (0:12:23):
Well, let’s have one. Just one dad rule.
Dad (0:12:26):
The most important parenting advice that I would give and something that we did that is, I believe, one of the most important aspects of parenting, is be consistent. Mom and dad have to be consistent. If mom says no, dad says no. The rules have to be the same with both parents and, a little Jordan story, you came across it early and honestly, like every child, you don’t get the answer you want from Mom, you go to dad. And so we caught on to that pretty quick and we made the decision, and literally you were like three, if that, and it’s like we will be consistent and agreed on, and we had a lot of conversations of how should we handle this? How should we handle that? So consistency between mom and dad, I believe, is one of the most important aspects of parenting.
Jordan (0:13:22):
Yeah, that’s actually the best advice we’ve had on this podcast in its entire 25-episode run.
Dad (0:13:28):
And have all matching bottles if you’re bottle-feeding. That’s the first most important thing. Because that comes sooner. But nothing is worse than getting your bottle put together at 2 AM and you think you have all the right parts, and then when you tip it over half of it pours out all over you and baby ’cause you happened to have the wrong lid. So yeah, that’s number one. Get all exactly matching bottle parts. And then number two is, always be consistent.
Jordan (0:14:02):
If it makes you feel any better, I don’t, as a baby, remember getting formula dumped on me, but you clearly do.
Dad (0:14:10):
I do. Whenever I talk to anybody who’s having a baby or if I had a chance to say so, I’ll say make sure you get all exactly the same bottles because you get half Playtex and half-
Mom:
Doctor, what’s his name.
Dad:
It’s 2 AM, you can’t see you’re looking through boxes of stuff trying to get a matching lid.
Mom (0:14:38):
Yep, it is. It’s a tragedy, for sure. For sure. Yeah.
Jordan:
What about you, mom, any advice?
Mom:
Just parenting in general? Or are you talking about parenting you?
Jordan:
Either or. However the spirit moves you.
Mom:
Well, I don’t know, I think we have two amazing kids. They’re incredible, and I don’t think it’s anything that we did right, I think it’s the grace of God and who you guys are, and so I think the only thing that we did right was that we loved you with all our hearts, every minute of every day, always and forever, and you can get through a lot of stuff if you’re just together in it and love each other, and so I’m really proud of you.
Jordan:
You can’t make me cry on my own podcast, mom. I love you too.
Mom:
We love you, and there’s just a lot of love in our family and like I said, I think that’s the only thing we did right.
Dad (0:15:35):
No, we didn’t, I don’t agree with that. We did several things right, but again, by the grace of God, and it’s true, the belief I always had in my heart was as long as you have best intention for your kid, then you won’t go wrong, and so that even if it’s hard to do you kinda look at the situation and if we go this way or then it may be now, it may be later, it’s an investment in the future, really, your parenting. So, yes, some things are hard to do, being a parent and having to discipline your child is not fun, but it’s a necessity because it’s an investment in the future.
Jordan:
That was actually-
Dad:
Surprising?
Jordan (0:16:21):
No, I’m not surprised that you have good insights, I’m just surprised that I gave you full range to completely dunk on me and tell the entire internet embarrassing stories, and you didn’t.
Dad:
Oh, we have them, we’re waiting. We’re gonna slide into those soon.
Mom:
We wanted everyone to know how much we love you and how amazing you are, but yeah, we got the dirt. We got the dirt on little Jordan.
Jordan:
Alright, well we might as well let those rip. Thank you for the very good advice and for being good parents. I love you both a lot.
Dad (0:16:57):
And obviously being present, paying attention, and while we didn’t see it and it was never brought to our attention externally from teachers or anything. Yeah, paying attention and being involved every day, and we had dinner as a family together pretty much every night, and that was that a mom rule there.
Mom (0:17:19):
Whether dinner tasted good or bad, we ate it.
Jordan:
It always tasted good. I don’t have any complaints. You had that going, dad was coming in hot for breakfasts all the time. We ate good in our house.
Dad (0:17:37):
That’s important. Unfortunately, a lot of people that’s hard for them to do, financially possibly. The world we live in now, the healthy food, chemicals, is the more expensive food and people are basically stuck eating processed foods, which again, look at that as an investment there, and so hopefully something like that would be able to be changed. We’re fortunate to have a wonderful cook, your mom, and we’re able to eat pretty healthy.
Jordan (0:18:10):
Yeah. It’s not always easy to do or accessible to people. I feel very lucky.
Dad (0:18:14):
We are all blessed in our family, that’s for sure.
Mom (0:18:20):
Well, so we do have a list of some of our fun memories that we kinda wanted to share with your audience ’cause they need to know everything from baby Jordan, who just thought daddy was the funniest thing, and we have a video of you sitting on dad’s lap, and he’s talking to you and you’re giggling and tell them what you were saying, hon.
Dad (0:18:45):
So it was 20 some years ago, the Salad Shooter was really a big- I don’t know if you remember the Salad Shooter.
Jordan (0:18:55):
Oh my gosh. Vaguely. Real quick for our audience, can you briefly explain what a Salad Shooter is.
Dad (0:19:05):
The Salad Shooter is basically a motorized grater that you could put carrot or celery or whatever in, and it would slice, dice, julienne fries type of stuff, and you just push it down in there and it would shoot sliced salad parts out into a bowl, and so their tag was Salad Shooter. So we’re standing there and you’re literally one or maybe two, and standing there on my lap, holding hands, and whenever I would say Salad Shooter you would flop your head over against our hand to the right. It was definitely a different motor response. But it was those specific words.
Jordan (0:19:54):
This just in, top 10 baby hacks they don’t tell you about at the hospital.
Dad:
Salad Shooter and boom.
Mom:
It was the funniest thing. So maybe that was the first sign and we didn’t get it.
Jordan:
That’ll be in textbooks now and the next DSM will be like, early scanning for ADHD. Do they display the Salad Shooter response?
Mom:
Right. There you go. It’s a diagnostic tool. Just from here on out. You wanna share one?
Jordan:
Was that it? Was that the most joyful memory from my childhood?
Mom:
After that we don’t remember much, it was all a blur.
Jordan:
It was all downhill from one.
Dad (0:20:39):
Honestly there are so many. With your kids, there are literally a million little moments that are in our minds, somewhere.
Mom:
Deeper and deeper all the time.
Dad:
But literally you’re present in your relationship with your kids, there’s literally a million little moments that you catch and every one of them is precious. And we certainly had no shortage of those. You always loved dancing, and watching, and many parents will agree that there are certain Disney movies that if I ever had to watch again, I may crack. But they had catchy music. So that was one of your favorite things to do, even at a really young age of two, maybe even three, putting on a fancy dress and dancing to what was the- I have a mental block against this- Cinderella, Aladdin. And we have some of the snippets. It was just the songs out of many different Disney movies, which were kind of cool. But yeah, definitely spent many, many hours watching those and dancing to those.
Mom (0:21:56):
And even just your elaborate dancing to classical music. Dad would spin you around and you would lay back. We have lots of home video of this. We need to get those out because you loved music and dance, and classical music was probably your first favorite of music, and then we definitely got you into some rock.
Jordan:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, no, I don’t wanna dunk on anyone who’s listening, I don’t wanna be a hipster about it, but I will say in the past couple of years, there’s been kind of a Fleetwood Mac Renaissance, and I feel like a lot of people my age are discovering them for the first time, and I’ve been so grateful that you guys started me on that early, even if I do still have a dent in my forehead from it.
Mom:
From the speaker.
Dad:
We still have the speaker by the way. And honestly, I guess I can’t lie, I kind of judge people on their parenting by the children’s musical taste.
Mom:
Fleetwood Mac, some Meatloaf, some good old Warrant and Whitesnake. We started you out right. You like all the good classics. Yep, yep. You were always a big reader. Your first word, some of your first words were reading in books, we’d have books that you’d know that the word was happy or the word was whatever, and so you were reading very early, and to this day, you love reading and throughout your life it was reading anything you could get your hands on up to and including phone books, you know.
Jordan:
I remember doing that, I remember reading a lot of phone books and a lot of cook books.
Dad (0:23:49):
Do you remember where you read the phone books?
Mom (0:23:53):
Your favorite reading spot as a toddler.
Jordan:
I’m gonna guess it was the potty.
Mom:
Yes, yes.
Jordan:
You kept all those Reader’s Digests in there. What was I supposed to do?
Mom:
You’d pick them up and read them, and when you ran out of Reader’s Digest, then the phone book would do just fine. And as you got older and older, it was come on, Jordan, put that book down and come to the dinner table, if I have to tell you one more time to put that book down, you’re gonna be grounded from reading books.
Jordan:
Wait, I just need to press pause real fast for some clarification. I sat on the toilet and read phone books as one of my main hobbies as a kid and you thought I was totally normal?
Mom:
Oh no, we never thought you were normal, we thought you were just like us.
Jordan:
Fair enough.
Mom:
So what is that? Is that another one of those tests like give your kid a phone book and see what they do with it. Some will sit on it, some will shoot it, some will rip it up, some will sit down and read it.
Jordan:
Maybe. I think the hardest part would be finding a phone book.
Mom:
Right, because they just don’t make them anymore.
Dad (0:25:09):
That is a good point.
Jordan (0:25:09):
They really don’t. It’s a shame really. There’s really nothing like phone book paper, it was like the inkiest smelling paper that there is.
Mom:
There was so much writing on them. There was an address, all those dots and then the phone number.
Jordan:
It was even better than newspaper smell.
Mom:
Yep, yep. You were definitely a big reader, and then you started reading phone books, one of your first favorite TV series was Yan Can Cook. God bless you, Yan. You used to love that show. And as you grew older, you enjoyed the cooking shows, I think it was your 9th or 10th birthday. Most of your gifts were measuring cups and kitchen towels and meat thermometers and garlic presses and things that most 10-year-olds don’t even know what to do with. But your love of cooking and cookbooks and cooking shows continued on. Do you remember the Alton Brown cookbooks?
Jordan:
Oh yeah, I still have that cookbook.
Mom:
Do you still have all of those, like the old ones and the newer one?
Jordan:
I think I only had the two. I might have lost the ‘I’m Just Here for the Food’. But the baking one, ‘I’m Just Here for More Food’, I have that on my bookshelf right outside my room right now.
Mom:
Wow. You were obsessed with the cooking.
Jordan:
And for everyone listening, that is Jordan’s first hyperfixation. So thank you for that. Some Jordan lore for you.
Mom:
Jordan lore. Yep, I like it.
Jordan:
Okay, any other ADHD moments from my childhood that you would like the internet to know.
Mom:
I don’t know if this is ADHD.
Dad (0:27:16):
That too. ADHD. One of my funniest, our fondest, both of ours, because we’re both there. It was when we lived on Adams and Bar, and we had for whatever reason, Kentucky Fried Chicken with the cake, the family meal with the bundt cake, and Jordan, after watching Cinderella for the 89,000th time was gonna serve us cake and she did a wonderful job, but she literally came out of the kitchen with a plate on her head with cake on it, and a plate in each hand, so as not to have to make two trips all the way back to that kitchen. That’s a long way for a three-year-old, four-year-old.
Jordan (0:28:01):
Did I drop the cake?
Dad (0:28:03):
No, you made it. It was impressive. I’m impressed to this day of the tact and talent it took to make that trip. Yeah, as far as ADHD, again, looking back, there were things that, looking back to, okay, we can see that where that concentration thing was lacking
Mom:
Or the hyper-fixation on things like cooking.
Dad:
But thankfully, nothing that was too detrimental on the exterior and you’ve addressed the issue, and you’ve got the remedies for it and look at you go now.
Jordan (0:28:46):
Well, thank you. I do remember in retrospect, a big ADHD moment before the math class, before the cooking class, a cleaning my room memory when I locked my door and shut it on the wrong side to get out of cleaning my room. I’m so sorry, in retrospect. I don’t know what I thought was gonna happen there. I know that was not a good night for any of us.
Dad (0:29:14):
The thing with being a kid is you were exploring boundaries, which kids do. You weren’t afraid to think outside the box.
Jordan (0:29:27):
That’s a very diplomatic retelling of that.
Dad (0:29:30):
I do remember that. Dad remedied that in a hurry.
Mom:
That was in Hibiscus, right?
Jordan (0:29:35):
No, that was in the Birch house.
Dad (0:29:37):
No, that was Hibiscus.
Jordan (0:29:40):
But no, I swear it was the Birch house, ’cause the Birch house had that door in between my room and the bathroom that was right next to my bedroom door and I locked both of them.
Dad (0:29:51):
I’m pretty sure my memory is from the Hibiscus.
Mom (0:29:56):
Anyways, you did it twice apparently.
Jordan:
The Hibiscus one might have just been an accident then.
Dad (0:30:02):
How old were you when we moved into the Hibiscus house?
Mom:
Ross was four. Five, six, seven, eight.
Jordan (0:30:08):
I was just starting, it was the weekend before I started fourth grade and we went to scrapbook with your friend from work, mom.
Mom:
Scrapbooking with Carrie.
Jordan:
Yeah. Totally normal hobbies for a fourth-grader, crushing garlic and scrapbooking with my mom’s work friends.
Mom:
Well, there must have been a couple door incidents.
Dad (0:30:33):
The one I was thinking of definitely happened in Hibiscus house.
Mom (0:30:37):
We did have some funky doors that we ended up replacing all of those door knobs, so maybe that was more.
Jordan:
That one might have genuinely been an accident because I feel like I remember that happening very vividly at the Birch house. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Mom:
We did do a lot of different things, let you explore a lot of different interests to kinda keep you busy. Remember you did, I think it was called Rainbows and Sunshine. It was like singing and dancing.
Jordan:
Sunshine Generation. Rainbows and Sunshine was my pre-school. Remember, I found the dead bird there.
Mom:
I don’t remember the dead bird.
Jordan:
I do. We buried it in a [inaudible] box.
Mom:
You did the singing and dancing, you tried ice skating. Do you remember ice skating lessons?
Jordan:
I do.
Mom:
Do you remember basketball?
Jordan:
I do. Little Rascals.
Dad (0:31:37):
See again, that looking at that particular basketball, it’s like the games going on and Jordan’s kinda walking up the court kinda, I was like, wow, she is really not interested in basketball.
Jordan (0:31:53):
I was very interested in the Capri Suns and the Cosmic Brownies afterwards. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but when I moved to Idaho, one of the first things I did was go to WinCo and buy Fruit Snacks and Cosmic Brownies. And I think I ate the whole box in one sitting.
Mom:
Oh my gosh, did you have the worst tummy ache? All that plastic in your tummy from the Fruit Snacks.
Jordan:
I didn’t eat the plastic, mom, this was when I was in college.
Mom:
Fruit Snacks are half plastic.
Jordan:
I got the Mott’s ones. You taught me how to eat right.
I got the ones with fruit juice. Not the Scooby Doo ones that are just blue flavored. Dad, what were you saying I did during basketball games?
Dad:
Basically, yeah, you were into it for about the first, they weren’t that long games. I think they only had six or eight-minute quarters and you were third grade so yeah, you were into it for a little bit, but then basically you were just kind of walking.
Mom (0:33:03):
Walking up and down the court dodging the ball.
Dad (0:33:06):
So there’s definitely not much attention after that. But, again, from the outside, it was looking more like interest in things, which there was virtually none.
Mom (0:33:19):
Yeah, ’cause the singing and dancing, you couldn’t get enough of. Let’s do it over and over again and again as much as we can.
Jordan:
Let’s wring all the dopamine out of that.
Mom:
And still true to this day.
Jordan:
Yeah, yeah, I did go and get a theater degree. I did not join the basketball program.
Mom:
And swing dancing and vocal lessons and all the singing and dancing thing has continued on. And music. You’ve always loved music when you were young, that was one of your first favorite things, listening to music and then playing music. The first thing you did was the bells, right? Were you gonna do drums?
Jordan:
I think it was clarinet and then bells.
Mom:
Okay, clarinet and then bells, and then saxophone.
Jordan:
And then a little bit of piano, and then back to vocal lessons. I’m incorrigible. You were both so brave.
Mom:
Those were your interests and it’s like, go out and check it out and see what you love, and that’s definitely what you loved. Basketball, not so much. Music, singing.
Dad:
No sports.
Jordan:
Both teams had fun.
Mom:
Do you remember the family dance parties when we’d be cleaning and we’d crank up the music and we’d all be rocking out.
Jordan (0:34:46):
Oh yeah, those are some of my favorite memories. Walking on Sunshine, get some Hootie and the Blowfish in there.
Dad:
We raised our kids right, baby.
Mom:
Oh yeah, we did. Yep, music and clean. That was the only way to get you guys to clean house.
Dad:
Except that one who listens to country.
Mom (0:35:08):
You know, not all country music is bad.
Dad:
No, I’m just kidding. It’s grown on me.
Jordan (0:35:12):
Darius Rucker gets a pass.
Mom (0:35:20):
For sure. Even if I did cry when he was no longer in Hootie and the Blowfish. Anyways, lots of fun memories. You were an active kid, but we loved every minute and hopefully we didn’t screw things up too bad.
Jordan:
You guys are wonderful, thank you so much for sharing all of that and giving everyone kind of a peek. A less typical ADHD parenting experience. Before we move on to the last part of the show, was there anything else you wanna share? Stories, advice, Dad jokes.
Dad (0:35:58):
Don’t get me started. I just thought of an awesome podcast. Dad jokes. You do yours every week, every other week?
Jordan (0:36:08):
Every other. Yeah, some people do every week.
Mom:
It’s gonna be your every other week dad joke segment.
Jordan:
We have had ADH dad jokes, which are dad jokes about ADHD, but you are a real dad.
Dad (0:36:24):
Yeah, I am a real dad. Last week I accidentally sprayed some deodorant in my mouth, and the rest of that day I spoke with a weird accent. You’re welcome.
Mom (0:36:38):
You can bleep that whole part out if you want.
Jordan:
No, that was beautiful. Did you come up with that all by yourself?
Dad (0:36:45):
I did not, no. And it’s better in print because you get the Axe scent. A-X-E S-C-E. It’s one of my favorites.
Jordan (0:36:56):
I love it. That’s a very good one.
Dad (0:36:57):
We got a new drummer in church, twin daughters named Anna one, Anna two.
Jordan (0:37:08):
I’ve been trying to carry the ADH dad joke torch because our podcast doesn’t have a dad on it, but you’re really, really shining.
Dad (0:37:18):
Appreciate that. Thank you, I’m happy to contribute.
Jordan (0:37:27):
Mom, anything else from you?
Mom:
No, I don’t think so. Did I tell you that I love you?
Jordan:
I love you too. I love you both. Stop. You’re not allowed to make me cry on my own podcast.
Mom:
You’re just amazing. And we love you.
Dad (0:37:42):
We’re very proud of you and all the things you’ve done and accomplished and continue to excel in life.
Jordan (0:37:50):
Well, I’m very thankful that I have parents who love me lots and have helped me do that. I am where I am ’cause y’all raised me, so love you both.
Dad (0:37:59):
Thank you. We love you too.
Jordan (0:38:01):
So the last part of the show, the way that Lex and I normally close it out is we bounce on over to the Dopamine Trampoline. And that is just a little snippet of something that is bringing you dopamine this week. Something that’s making you happy. A show that you’ve been enjoying, a game that you’ve been enjoying or something from the past that you were super interested in that made you really happy and you were super interested in.
Dad (0:38:31):
What have we been enjoying doing?
Mom (0:38:34):
We did have a lovely day on, was it Saturday or Sunday? It was Saturday. ‘Cause we like to go wine tasting.
Jordan:
Ooh, where’d you go?
Mom:
We’re from wine country. So first we went and had lunch at Bookwalter.
Jordan:
Did you have the avocado fries?
Mom:
We actually didn’t. We didn’t have avocado fries. I was trying to be good. I had fish tacos, they were really good. We just got a bottle of wine. But then we went and checked out Cave B.
Jordan:
Oh, how was that?
Mom:
So, you know, it was good, but my obsession is going to all the wineries in Washington, in the vicinity, so Washington, Oregon, Idaho, whatever. And that one was on my list ’cause I hadn’t been there. It was good to get to experience that.
Jordan:
Check another one off the list. What do you like about Columbia Valley Wines?
Mom:
I think that they are more, right, yeah, really, what’s not to like? I think they’re bolder. They’re more adventurous, they have definitely more structure, and I’m not gonna diss any other state’s wines, but there are some states that are really popular for their wines, and I think we have them beat.
Jordan:
Rhymes with Lalismornia.
Mom:
Yeah, something like that.
Dad (0:40:02):
And as our vineyards get older, the wine just keeps getting better. We still have 50 years to go before our vineyards age and the grapes get more concentrated. The wine just keeps getting better and better.
Mom (0:40:15):
We have world class wine.
Jordan:
We do, and I really wanna drink some right now. You’re inspiring me.
Mom:
In October, we will bring you some wine in October.
Dad (0:40:27):
Honestly, one thing I have been enjoying doing a lot, well, we haven’t done it a lot lately, is hanging out with our grand-niece who’s just over a year old and fun and playful, and reminds me a lot of Jordan when she was young. She’s energetic and smart, and so that, honestly, that’s one of my favorite things to do. Just hang out with her, and she just kinda harkens you back to all the good times you had when your kids were small. And I definitely see how grandparents are wack-a-doodle when it comes to grandkids, because you have-
Mom (0:40:59):
All the fun and none of the-
Dad (0:41:03):
I don’t know, it’s just a weird different. You’re older, you’re not scared. Honestly, when you’re a young parent, a first time parent, you’re typically, it’s scary, you know? I mean, because you’re-
Mom (0:41:15):
You don’t wanna screw it up.
Jordan:
No, that’s fair.
Dad (0:41:17):
Yeah, you definitely don’t have that trepidation that you would have as your kids. I had the benefit of having younger, when I was fairly young, in my teens, having nieces and nephews, so I’d spent a fair amount of time around children, so I wasn’t as nervous as maybe some people would be, but not to have that, I’d better be careful. Just being able to be relaxed. And there for the fun. Yeah, you don’t really have to worry about feeding and changing diapers.
Mom:
You just get to the fun stuff.
Jordan (0:41:47):
Sugar ’em up and send ‘em home.
Mom
And she’s at a fun age, and you get to see her more than some of the others, just ’cause they have school and are busy, whatever. So it is super fun to get to spend time with the little one-year-old, and I mean, the baby that’s in the family, the little chunk.
Dad’s (0:42:08):
He’s super cute.
Mom (0:42:13):
He’s fun too. Well, they’re all fun. And the older ones are fun ’cause you can go outside and play ball with them or make cookies or do whatever. They’re all fun at different ages. Different ages and stages,
Jordan:
Sounds really nice, just wine tasting and tossing some babies around.
Mom:
Hanging out with the grand-nieces and nephews. It’s the life.
Jordan:
That sounds really fun. This week, partially this really genuinely has brought me a lot of dopamine, but also to prove that you taught me well, I made chicken wraps for dinner this week. And I did garlic naan for the wrap with chicken thighs that I slow-cooked in falafel seasoning and lettuce from the Farmers Market. And then for the sauce, I made homemade sun-dried tomato hummus.
Dad (0:43:13):
That’s next level right there.
Jordan (0:43:17):
There’s so much hummus. It will probably still be here in October.
Mom:
Nice. I was gonna say, can you make that when we come?
Jordan:
Lex is out of town. It’s just me and the hummus. I think it’s growing in the fridge. I have a whole recycled yogurt container of it. It’s a horrifying amount of hummus. Yeah, so those chicken wraps have been my Dopamine Trampoline this week, but yes, I can make them when you come visit.
Mom:
Nice. Or freeze it. I think hummus would freeze.
Jordan:
Does hummus freeze?
Dad:
It does.
Jordan:
Does it thaw well?
Dad (0:43:54):
Does it taste good when you’re all done with that, who knows?
Jordan (0:44:01):
I feel like you would be the worst genie ever, dad, ’cause people would be like, I want this hummus to freeze and you’d be like, well, done. Whatever.
Dad (0:44:14.2):
Sometimes you just gotta do it.
Jordan (0:44:16):
Alright. Well, that is all the questions that I have for you. Thank you both so much for coming on the show. It’s been a blast to have you.
Dad (0:44:28):
Well, thank you for having us. It’s been a blast to be here.
Mom:
Yes, thank you. We love you.
Jordan (0:44:33):
I love you too. Have a good night.
Mom:
You too.
Dad:
Love you, sweetheart.
Jordan:
Love you, bye.
Dad:
Bye.
Jordan:
This has been Or, Learn Parkour from Wholehearted Production Company. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Good Pods, and most other places cool people listen to podcasts. Special thanks to Krizia Perito for our cover art design, you can find her at Petalhop, that’s P-E-T-A-L-H-O-P on Instagram and Twitter and Etsy. Thanks also to Tom Rosenthal for our theme song, There is a Dark Place off of the album, Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop. You can follow us on the sosh meeds @OrLearnParkour on Twitter, @wearewpc on Instagram and at wearewpc.com. You can find links in our episode description to Krizia’s work, to our music, to our social media, to our transcripts, all kinds of fun things in there, check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, don’t forget to subscribe to this feed. Click that button now. I’ll give you a second to do it. Okay, done it? Cool. You can also support the show by sharing a show with a friend, leaving us a review or supporting us on Ko-fi if you’re able to. The link to that is in our Linktree, which you can find on our Twitter and our Instagram. I’m Jordan, this has been Or, Learn Parkour. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you in two weeks.