New Photo Safari

We went on another photo safari.

This one ended up at the Italian Soda place.

I'm not sure how this keeps happening.

Photo Safari

We went on a photo safari this morning. We took our cameras. A took all of these pictures with his camera.  A had fun. Somehow we ended up at a place that sells hot chocolate.

Gloomy Composers

Scene: The kitchen. The local classical music station is having their fund raiser.

A (at the kitchen table): "What's the name of the composer who wrote 'The Firebird?'"

J (preparing eggplant parmesan for the microwave) : "I think you know that. Do you remember?"

A: "Stra -- Stravinsky?"

J (inordinately pleased): "That's right. Stravinsky wrote 'The Firebird.' And you know what, his first name is Igor. So his full name is Igor Stravinsky."

A: "Igor! Igor Stravinsky. It sounds like Eeyore."

J (imagining what compositions by Eeyore Stravinsky would sound like): "Yes. It does."

Spirit and Opportunity

A and M got back the other day from a trip across the nation. They had a lot of fun at a family wedding and they got to visit with many of M's relatives, whom we only see every year or so (as opposed to J's relatives, whom we see about every other week). A seems to be speaking more and whispering less; I'm guessing that competing with other pre-schoolers for adult attention and just being in a house full of people probably contributed to this increase in audibility.

In a different development, I managed to get A to watch parts of "Roving Mars," a Disney / NASA / Lockheed production. I started him watching the movie in the middle, where a CGI rocket launches off of Earth to Mars with musical accompaniment composed by Philip Glass. He liked it a lot, especially the part where the Mars atmospheric entry engineer is explaining that if they open Spirit Mars Rover's parachutes too early, the speed will shred the parachutes; but if they open the parachutes too late the rover will crash into the planet.

The CGI is really fun (if a little bit over-audible) and they show the air-bags the rovers used to bounce onto Mars, and the rovers unfolding their solar arrays and arms. I think A (and M) liked the RAT unit used to drill holes into rocks. But still, the question A asked most was, "J, how come if they open up the parachutes too late the rover will CRASH into Mars?"

I am hopeful that a real movie about real NASA probes will focus him on Mars, and off of "Space Chimps."

He's Back

A wants people to know that his shirt is like mustard.