March 2010 Dinosaur

It's crazy how photos accumulate in the cell phone.

This is from March 2010.

A wanted to be a dinosaur, and insisted that the face painters give him big teeth and sharp claws.

Dinosaur Heaven

2009-06-14 Monday

After a car swap, we M managed to drive us into the parking garage of The Museum of Natural History. A sort of knew that we would see dinosaurs, but I guess he didn't know exactly what to expect. He was in the lead, and rounded a corner into the room of the Jurassic era. His eyes widened, and I'd swear that they turned into flashlight bulbs. "Guys!" he said, "Come on!" and he was off to Dinosaur Heaven.


I think at some point M observed that 1) it was my job to photo-document things and that 2) I had a bias against A in favor of things like buildings, flowers, sculptures and architecture.

My reply was that I took photos of those things because they actually stood still long enough to be photographed. At which point (Aunt) M commented that, the ratio of blurry A's to non-blurry A's in the previous days' photos was rather high....





We wanted to take (Aunt) M and V out for dinner for all the hard work they did for A's Big Monopoly Party. The plan was to visit Times Square for a moment (A has been listening to "A Cricket in Times Square"). On the way, a man collapsed just on the yellow caution line next to the subway train, so it couldn't move (and they couldn't move the man until EMT's came).

Then in an exchange, V & M got into an elevator to spare M's joints from walking up some stairs and the elevator went down to Dante's 9th Circle. It came back.

By the time we actually got out into the light of day, A had fallen asleep on M's shoulders. He awoke on the floor of Toys R Us, a four-story extravaganza with a four-story Ferris wheel, a life-sized animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, tons of Legos, and a clerk who flew a toy helicopter into M. Twice. We're pretty sure it was some kind of geek-boy flirty thing.

Quck Update

The Pirate Ban is over. One of the clerks at the local supermarket helped us celebrate with Piratical Music.

A still enjoys playing Monopoly (tournament rules), but likes his new game, "Loot," which is sort of like "bridge meets The Golden Age of Piracy." A's strategy is to save all his cards (I think so he can see the trumping "captain pirate cards").

It's spring break, and M decided that we'd be better served if A stopped napping. So this has been an interesting week.

We went hiking at the local arboretum. A recent big-cat scare insured that all four boys on the hike grabbed sticks for a re-enactment of "Peter and the Cougar." Or was that the chapter from A.A. Milne, "In Which Tigger is Unbounced" ? I'm pretty sure all the wildlife in a three mile radius fled.

We saw "Dora the Explorer" for the first time the other night. A wants to be... (wait for it)... Swiper, the tricky fox who steals everything. Thanks, Dora.


Oh. Right. The Dinosaur Phase has officially started (since sometime last week). There would have been a blog posting about it, but we're too busy learning the difference between the Cretaceous, Mesozoic, Triassic, and Jurassic. A wants to be... (wait for it)... Tyrannosaurus Rex, and routinely walks around with his hands held as claws next to his chest while asking, "You want to see my scary teeth?" Already he's cornered face painters at two separate events and demanded they paint most of his face as huge dino-teeth and then holds up his hands to get a claw treatment. I can't decide if they're happy to not be painting Yet Another Rainbow Butterfly on some kid's face, or if A's Secret I-Am-A-Blond-Blue-Eyed-Four-Year-Old-You-Are-Getting-Sleepy Powers are still working.