On the Move

SAY CHEESE(BURGER): This morning CJ's mind was still on his bad cheeseburger from our visit to the Crab Pot the night before. He was right back to talk of it turning into fungus, and asked me about how we could grow some - using his bad burger as a basis. Of course, I was going to accommodate him.

Though I know how to stick bread in a Ziploc bag and shove it in a drawer and forget about it for a couple of weeks without a tutorial, I thought the kids would benefit with something a bit flashier. I turned to the Internet. There, I discovered the "So Cool Science Show" starring Crazy Chris (an aspiring Bill Nye the Science Guy type).

Of course me being me, I dig deeper and find out that Chris isn't an official scientist (he's supposedly working toward a teaching degree) but I figure that's quite alright. We here at MPA aren't bona fide scientists, either, and we can still do experiments and such.

Anyway, Crazy Chris has a bread mold tutorial, which I showed the kids, and they loved it. Afterward, we did what we needed to do to get the fungus going. Stay tuned. :)

GAME GIRL: In case you haven't been following along at home, CJ is a Nintendo aficionado. He can tell you the order in which every Nintendo platform was introduced to market, as well as the order of every game involving Mario.

Annabelle is definitely interested in the games, too, but usually just passively - until Super Mario 64 for the DS arrived via Amazon.com this week. While it's definitely a game in the traditional sense of beating bad guys and acquiring stars and such, there are also not-so-traditional aspects. Annabelle's favorite is one where you can draw a character and then the game software will allow you to animate it as well as morph it. So, so cool! I can't even imagine having access to something like that when I was a kid. ...

TREASURE HUNT: It has been weeks since we've hit a Goodwill or a garage sale. Since we've spent lots of the last few days running from hardware store to hardware store, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to hit Value Village. I was glad we did!

Our finds included books (of course), including a great Van Gogh related picture book. And for just $12, I scored a brand-new looking 5-DVD set about the history of NASA missions. How awesome is that?! I can't wait to watch and learn!

FIRECRACKERS: This afternoon Annabelle had a bonus ballet experience - a special, themed dance session entitled "Stars & Stripes." By my eye, she was the youngest one there. When we got there, another little girl was standing in the hallway, eating a Rice Krispies treat. The girl said she'd been there a long, long time and was VERY happy to see Annabelle. The ballet teacher later told me the girl had been dropped off there 45 minutes before. The girl was all of 6 years old. What kind of parent just dumps their 6 year old off at a community center and takes off? Seriously? All KINDS of people are in and out of the center all day long. It just blows my mind.

Later, when I went to pick Annabelle up, this 3 or so year old boy was being a complete hellion, hitting and biting the man whose shoulders he was riding on, pouring water all over the hallway, etc. The man was at his wits' end and said to me, "I think I've made a mistake." He then explained that he just graduated from high school (he looked older) in Alabama and his aunt invited him out to Seattle for the summer to help with her kids. The guy clearly didn't know how to handle the little darling and the little kid was clearly in the driver's seat. The recent graduate said to me, "I can't talk to him the way I would normally." (In other words, tell the little *&^*& to cut that *&^* out.) I said to him, "Oh yes you most certainly CAN talk to him like he's a real person, which he is, and frankly you NEED to talk to him that way. You have got to be in charge or this is going to be a long, horrible summer for you."

The graduate then told me that until this week, his biggest concern was trying to make his college soccer team, but that babysitting was way harder and more exhausting. I laughed and told him the reason it's so tiring is because it's not just a physical challenge, but it's mentally exhausting too - especially if you're letting the whims of a 3-year-old run the show.

The graduate, clearly struggling for something he was familiar with, then said something to the effect of, "Should I talk to him like he's a dog?" (And he wasn't being sarcastic or facetious.) I thought about it and said, "Well in a way, yes. He needs to know that YOU are in charge and that YOU are calling the shots and that you care about him and if he follows your lead, everyone's going to have a great time." Just because you have rules and enforce them doesn't mean you're mean or the kids don't have fun. Quite the opposite, really. Rules are our friends. :)

In happier news, Annabelle enjoyed the camp, and when I went to pick her up, she was wearing this "fabulous" (her word) shiny satin (loaner) skirt over a red tulle tutu. I would have included a photo of Annabelle wearing her oh-so-patriotic (keeper) headband with stars on springs atop it but, um, well, Kirby ate it. No, not all of it, but she destroyed the blue star, that's for sure.

Annabelle took it pretty well. Through her tears she did hear me tell her that I was pretty sure we could score a replacement at the dollar store ...

MOVIN' ON: This has exactly zero to do with our learning here at MPA, but the big happening in the household was CeeJ & Bee's big bro Ken got to move into his new place today!

CJ & Annabelle helped carry some of the stuff into his new place. (Poor CJ - one of the things he was carrying was a toolbox. Little did he know it had drawers that would freely open. And open they did. I heard a crash followed by a quick, "Sorry, Ken!!") But that was the only oops of the evening, so not too bad.

CJ was mortified that Ken's place didn't have a TV immediately. No TV = no video games. The HORROR!

After a quick toast and a test drive of Ken's bed, we left him to spend his first night there. CJ and Annabelle are looking forward to a future sleepover. :)

It's a great neighborhood (Fremont) and he has a nice (big!) space and the price is right. As long as his neighbors aren't PSYCHO, I think Ken will be very happy there.