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.

The Circle of Algebra...

Scene: Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's.

A (poking at his hamburger): "J, I don't want to go to school."

J (a little surprised): "Why not?"

A (mater-of-factly): "I already know everything."

G.J. (laying a trap with the stealth of a lioness on the Serengeti): "Oh, do you know how to do algebra?"

A (like a springbok caught in headlights): "What's algebra?"

G.J (pouncing): "Ah-ha!"

G.H (pointing): "See! See!"

(A nearly launches from his chair in surprise)

J (laughing): "They got you, bud...."

Please Don't Let Me Be One of Those Parents...

Scene: The park. A is running of with H to a far corner from the sandbox area, where the parents are.

J (yelling across the park): "A, come back; we want you to stay near us."

A (yelling back): "No. H says I have to go around the pool."

J (realizing he's yelling across the park): "H is not your father. Let's not yell this discussion across the park."

A: "Let's!" (turns to run after H...)

Bathtime with William Blake

Scene A is taking a Very Long Bath while J reads "The Collected Works of William Blake" to him. Having dispensed with "The Tyger," "The Poison Tree," and what Mr. Blake was talking about when he "had a pretty little rose tree," we are moving forward to other poems.

A (while filling a plastic duck with water): "J, find one that's really weird."

J (flipping around the book): "Okay..." (looking for something that's only about twenty-four lines long...) "Oh. Here. -- Wow, buddy, this one was written in 1808, it's over two hundred years old. (Straightens up on the toilet).

TO THE QUEEN

The Door of Death is made of Gold, / That Mortal --"

A: "J! J! Does that mean that it's made of gold and when you touch it, you die?!"

J (smiling slightly at the Aladdin reference): "No, I don't think that's what it means, let's see what the rest of the poem says..."


The scene continues, concluding with a faux-British accent rendition of "And did those feet in ancient times / Walk upon England's mountains green..."
. . .

A: "J, is William Blake a little over the top?"

J: "Well... yeah."

Long Term Pirate Time-Out

A had been warned by M. He karate chopped another kid at the playground, and the result is that all things piratical have been boxed. The pirate figures, the treasure maps, the tricorns hats, the pirate books, the doubloons, the boats -- they're all going into storage because pirates are a bad influence that teach us to be violent.

So. Please refrain from sending piratical items for a month -- until the Equinox.

Bowling for Children

A couple of weeks M and A went bowling. They had a good time, so all of us went this evening.

A got a lot of gutter balls, so we asked for the bumpers.

M and J broke 100 (barely) the first game.

We won't discuss the second game...

Theological Drama

Scene: The Living Room. J is doing his morning stretching exercises and A is preparing to go out.

A: "J, I think God is too dramatic, so I'm just going to pray for myself."

J: "God is too dramatic; what do you mean?"

A: "Well, God is all about love right?"

J: "Yeah."

A: "And love makes people cry when they're happy."

J: "So that's why God is too dramatic?"

A: "Yeah."