The King is Dead. Long Live the King!

COMPOSE YOURSELF: This morning we were at the kitchen table by 9, rarin' to go. The kids were both working on money values/addition and some clock reading worksheets. I went to my computer to fire up some music. Hmm ... music? Oh ... MUSIC!!?!?!?!?

It was 9:17 and the kids were supposed to be at music at 9:15. Fortunately, the music lesson is just a block away, but they were still in jammies and shoeless. I sounded the alarm and hit the panic button. As it turns out, apparently that is NOT the fastest or most efficient way to get them out the door. I was combing Bee's hair and getting her clothes, yelling at CJ to get his shoes. Just a moment later, I find CJ wantering around the smooshy yard in his SOCKS looking for his shoes. Why? I will never know. Me = not happy.

Somehow, the kids dressed (including a change of socks for CJ) and we were to music (we ran there, of course) by about 9:23.5.

In my defense, the reason I spaced it is two-fold: 1) We haven't had music for two weeks (holiday break) and 2) Christian was home today (he has a class Monday, so instead of taking Monday off per usual, he had today off).

One good thing about Christian having today off is that he was able to go to the last 10 minutes/parent participation part of the class of Musikgarten for the first time. By his report, today the kids each composed a four "measure" song during class and then they performed it on drums during the parent part.

At home, Annabelle showed me her composition. Upon seeing this symbol ♫ I asked, "Are those called eighth notes?"

"No. I think they're called do-days," she corrected. That is, in fact, what they call them in class. I think the idea is to introduce the concept and duration before the official terminology

THAT'S ALRIGHT MAMA: Once the kids were back from music, it was back to the table to finish what they'd started. While they worked, in honor of Elvis Presley's birthday, I started playing Elvis tunes (and kept it up throughout the balance of the day).

We started with An American Trilogy (from Hawaii, '72, maybe my favorite performance of any of his songs, ever). Then I played more upbeat, kid friendly tunes (Teddy Bear, That's Alright Mama, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock). And then indulged myself some more (Memories, How Great Thou Art, You Gave Me a Mountain). And then I had to go and find Unchained Melody . Filmed just six weeks before he died, it was just Elvis, a microphone and a piano. Rapture and torture. :/

At one point during the Elvis jam CJ asked, "You still have a birthday after you died, right?" I said a person's birthday will always be their birthday, even when they're not on Earth to celebrate it.

Soon after, Annabelle called out, "Happy birthday, Elvis way up there in the stars from way down here."

This afternoon, during free play time, I let them use the Elvis dolls that usually stand guard over our kitchen. "My own little Elvis!" Bee exclaimed with a smile, fingering his black pleather jacket. For awhile they played "Elvises in Space." Later, a dolly in a pink gown joined them and it became "Elvis and the Princess."

DOUBLE TAKE: Pizza was on the menu for dinner tonight. I gave CJ two pieces (cheese and black olives only). He quickly polished those off and asked for "double more." I said he could have another piece and he countered, "No, I had two and I want double that. Two more."

I couldn't argue. His math was sound. (So I cut one more good sized piece in half and gave him the requested two more pieces.)

KING CONTINUED: It has been more than a week since we did the family movie thing. Since there are no bowl games tonight, seemed like this evening would be a good time to get a picture show in. In keeping with today's "King" theme, "The Lion King" seemed a good choice. I haven't watched it since Rick and Ken were kiddos. It's a great story (family, loyalty, perseverance, betrayal, revenge, friendship) and has a fantastic soundtrack. During the climactic battle scene when Simba had returned to claim the throne from his evil Uncle Scar, CJ was doing the pogo in front of the TV.

At the end, when "The Circle of Life" was playing, Annabelle said softly. "Oh my. That was a good movie. That was a good movie."

Christian and I have seen the touring Broadway musical version - I'd love to be able to take CeeJ and Bee to see a similar production of it some day. Maybe even in New York? ...

I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS: Because it just doesn't get any better than this ...

Actually, Muzzy Wuz

OVER THE RAINBOW: To be honest, I'm not sure which computer program or Web site Annabelle used to create her "mastrpese" (pictured above), but in my book Annabelle gets bonus points for two reasons. One: She put the rainbow's color's in the proper Roy G. Biv order (she even told me that in order to make that happen she had to create the violet - that it wasn't a default choice in the software she was using). And second, I love that she used an apostrophe on "Bee's," as just the day before we'd talked about using an apostrophe-S when the word's a possessive. Go Bee!

IT WAS OLD MAN CARRUTHERS!: This morning before "school" was in session, CJ and Annabelle were watching a special Cartoon Network showing of "Aloha! Scooby Doo" (2005, with what I will admit was a lovely theme song sung by Don Ho, if you can believe that). The cartoon dragged on and on and on, and I was ready to get this party started. At the one hour mark I walked into their bedroom (where they were watching it) and asked CJ if it was almost over. He said, "No! We don't know who did it yet!" I told him to please let me know when it was over, so we could get started with our brain work. He nodded and shut the door when I left the room. When I heard that the program had finally ended, I headed for their bedroom - and discovered the door was locked. Ruh roh. ...

That's right, I'd been locked out of their room for fear of breaking up the viewing party before the gang solved the mystery. I told CJ (and Bee, since she was there), not to ever lock me out again. Not even for Scooby Doo. (Geez, if they're already doing that now, what do I have to look forward to once they're teenagers? :/ )

NO COMPRENDÉ: As he was working on a reading comprehension exercise this morning, CJ proclaimed, "I'm clever. That's why I finish so much homework. ... Once I have a super brain, I'll decide I'm enough smart," and not have to do any more school work.

Unfortunately for CJ, today was not that day. The last part of his comprehension activity asked him to use a pronoun in place of the underlined word (a person or object). He came up with some words (I really should have asked his reasoning for choosing the ones he did, darn it!). However, since he didn't know what a pronoun was, his answers were wrong. So, we talked about pronouns. He seemed to get the concept right away. So we'll work on them again in the days to come, to cement the idea.

Annabelle's reading comprehension exercise centered on a passage about soup. Technically, she got every single answer wrong. Her answers weren't taken straight from the passage, which was the point of the exercise. Read passage. Glean info. Answer questions about passage.

It was a good example of how standardized tests are problematic when judging a student's capabilities. Annabelle's answers had merit, but they weren't by the book, so to speak. ...

There was one free-form question at the end of the exercise: "What kind of soup do you like best?"

Annabelle (who doesn't like ANY kind of soup) thought about this long and hard. Finally she struck upon an answer: "How about brownie dough? That's kind of like soup ..." she reasoned. I gave her credit for that one.

Today's background music was Yo-Yo Ma playing the prelude from Bach´s Cello Suite No. 1, a track oft featured in commercials. In fact, when I hear it, I can't get the image of a BMW ripping along a curvy country road out of my head. We also listened to Bach - Violin Concerto in E Major BWV1042 - Mov. 1/3. Complicated, complex and not one of his most famous compositions, for whatever reason.

EL STUPIDO: OK, so for those who are following along at home, you know that a couple of days ago I finally opened up the big Muzzy instructional language kit I checked out from the library, roarin' to finally get the kids into a little Español. And you'll remember I was horrified to find a DVD and books that were in English only.

Yeah, well, while putting that English stuff back in the box today, I opened up the kit and I'll be damned if I don't find an entire additional layer beneath - full of the Spanish CDs and DVDs. Doh! So today, we watched Muzzy in Español - to CJ's chagrin. He asked for the English version instead. I reminded him he already knows how to speak English and so we don't need to dwell on that one!

Fortunately, he came around and was singing along in Spanish before too long. Annabelle was downright rapt, and drew a picture of Muzzy while watching/singing/repeating.

FAIL: I had a coupon for Chef Boyardee products for just .79 a can, so yesterday we bought a couple. CJ loves spaghetti and I thought it might be a quick meal in a pinch. So, at lunchtime today, I opened a can and split the football shaped pasta in tomato sauce between two bowls. The kids were equally disdainful of it. So, I put it in the fridge and went to Plan B - a corn dog. But not just any corn dog - a meatless one from Trader Joe's.

Ironically, CJ, who as of late has started declaring his desire to be a vegetarian, was the one who balked at the tofu dog. He said, "This isn't like the corn dogs you usually make." I explained it is a corn dog for people who want to be vegetarians, thinking that will hook him. He responds by saying he'll "eat vegetables and stuff," but he won't be eating vegetarian corn dogs. Fine. Lunch fail #2. I suggested he at least eat the corn meal part, which he did.

While we're talking lunch, it's worth noting that Annabelle asked me today, "Why is it called a sandwich?" It was one of my why-oh-why moments (as in, "Why have I never wondered that?"). My answer came from an interesting Web site I discovered while searching for an answer: WordSources.info. According to it:

The word sandwich that we use today was born in London during the very late
hours one night in 1762 when an English nobleman, John Montagu, the Fourth Earl
of Sandwich (1718-1792), was too busy gambling to stop for a meal even though he
was hungry for some food. The legend goes that he ordered a waiter to bring him
roast-beef between two slices of bread. The Earl was able to continue his
gambling while eating his snack; and from that incident, we have inherited that
quick-food product that we now know as the sandwich.

CRAMMING: It was a library due date, so we had a number of books to read before returning them. The list included "Here Comes T. Rex Cottontail," "Last One in is a Rotten Egg," and "Earth Day, Hooray!"

My favorite of the group was the last one. I was expecting an ecology lesson and/or info about the April 22 holiday (founded in 1970, BTW). There was a little of both, but the book, by visual learning specialist Stuart J. Murphy was really a terrific math lesson. The kids in the story were hoping to collect 5000 cans which they'd recycle and use the $ generated to beautify a park for Earth Day. They collected the cans in small bags of 10, and then 10 of the small bags were placed into a larger bag, making 100 cans. The bags of 100 cans were then put into gigantic bags - 10 bags of 100-can bags - for a total of 1,000. It was great reinforcement of place value - which we talked about yesterday during our inaugural attempt to add double digit numbers. And it really demonstrated how grouping in multiples of 10 can make counting large numbers quite manageable.

We finished our read-a-thon with the book "A Perfect Day." It was short on words, just a beautifully illustrated story of a parent and child's perfect day - sharing meals, a walk, cloud watching, singing and dancing , painting, reading. (Hey, that kind of sounds like what we do 'round here on a daily basis!)

I asked CJ what his perfect day would be. He said eating pizza, eating Cheez-Its and going to Disneyland. Bee said hers would be "reading three books about spring and snuggling with my mom." Aw gee, Bee.

Of course, after reading the book, I had to play one of my all time favorite songs for them, Lou Reed's Perfect Day.

Movin' on Up

POP TART PIONEERS: Yesterday a small miracle arrived in our mailbox. ...

What was it, you wonder? Why, it was a special delivery of a brand new flavor of Pop Tarts - one that hasn't even hit store shelves yet!

That's right people, we are Pop Tarts INSIDERS!

What with phrases like "Worldwide Premiere!" and "Certified First Taste" splashed all over the box, it was no wonder CJ was up at 6 this morning, itching to get at the mystery Pop Tarts inside the box. I made him wait for Annabelle, who was on the scene a couple of hours later.

We popped open the box and then the package and let me tell you, the pair of pastries frosted in bright purple with day-glo green racing stripes were a feast for the kids' eyes. : )

CJ made his disappear quickly. I was surprised, as I honestly thought he wouldn't even really like it. He never chooses the fruit flavored Pop Tarts at the store, instead going for anything with chocolate (think Cookies & Cream, S'mores, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough).

Afterward, he was eager to report his findings (as a package insert had requested) to the Pop Tarts people. "I'm the first one to taste it and love it!" he declared. He logged into the site all by himself and proceeded to read the questions (which were intended for an adult). Soon he was asking me things like, "What's 'purchase'?" and "What's 'satisfied'?" and "What's 'relevant'?" (Yay! - an impromptu vocabulary lesson!)

I thought it was interesting that one of the Pop Tarts' question was, "Will you blog or post an entry about this package on a blog, Web site or social media site?" Why yes, in fact, we will. Thanks for asking ...

WEATHER WATCHERS: Another thing we did this morning was check the weather using our handy dandy new weather station (thanks G&G!). Each morning this week we've noted the temperature. I want the kids to track it for a whole month, and then we can graph it and talk about trends. For the past two days it's been just over 47 degrees at 8 a.m. ish. Today, it was sunnier, but it was colder (44.9 F). Hmm. Why would it be colder if the sun is out, Annabelle wondered. These are some of the weather mysteries we'll be exploring together at MPA. :)

CARRY THE ONE: For morning math, I got the kids each going on a computer, on the FunBrain Web site, where lots of great math games live. I selected a baseball themed one. Each time a player answers a math problem correctly, they get a hit. Harder problems = extra bases. While painting the ceiling, I was listening to the kids do grade 1 math with no trouble, and while I certainly want them to have that nice feeling one gets by mastering something, clearly it was time for a challenge. So I upped the difficulty to "medium" (instead of "easy") and immediately they were up against math we hadn't tackled yet - adding double digit numbers with other double digit numbers. I told them it was simple - stuff they could totally do, and showed them the columnar format that makes it a snap. I told them that it really isn't any harder, it's just like you're doing two easy math problems. You add the right column numbers first, then the left column numbers, and we went over the whole "carry the one" thing. They caught on really quickly and were soon back to hitting triples, doubles and home runs in their game!

TAKE A HIKE: As noontime was approaching, it was turning out to be a really nice day. No rainclouds looming overhead and the sun looked to be making an effort to make an appearance. When I told the kids we'd take Kirby for a walk to the park, CJ said that today he wanted to go to his favorite park, which we call "Hilltop Play Park" for a very good reason. It's only 7-ish blocks away, 5.5 of which are all uphill. A STEEP hill. I told the kids if they were game to give it a go, we'd walk there. They jumped on that and so we struck out.

They both did better than I expected. The complaining didn't start until about 4 blocks into the journey :). "My muscles are tired. I need to take a nap," CJ moaned. Fortunately, the worst of the walk was behind us and he somehow managed to soldier through.

It was worth the work! Once up top, we had the entire 2+ acre park to ourselves. CJ and Annabelle sat down and dug into the pretzels I'd packed along. As they snacked, they were treated to a fantastic view of Seattle and Puget Sound. It was downright delightful. I let the kids play for almost an hour while I walked and walked and walked the dog in circles 'round the park.

IT'S A KICK: Tonight was Christian and CJ's second Tae Kwon Do session. Christian says he thinks CJ has already realized that martial arts is about hard work and repetitive practice, and that it's a far cry from the flashy fight scenes he's seen in movies and cartoons. Once he gets over his disappointment, hopefully CJ will see that there are still plenty of good reasons to participate and that he'll want to stick with it. Time will tell. ...

Once again, while the guys were doing their thing, Bee and I did some cardio kick boxing and Pilates. We've got to keep up with the boys, after all!

Muzzy Wasn't Wuz He?

MORNING MOCHA: Very first thing this morning we watched a Discovery Channel video about how specialty (molded solid and hollow) chocolate is made. In the example they used, it was a highly automated process, involving few people but lot and lots of conveyor belts and other machines. I think the video will be a good contrast for when we finally make it over to Theo Chocolate, where it's more hands on, I do believe. ...

After the instructional video, I showed the kids the classic Lucy and Ethel clip where they're working the line in a chocolate factory. They LOL-ed, of course. Still funny, funny stuff 58(!) years later!

WRITE ON: For this morning's writing, each of the kids had to write a few sentences about the special class they attend (Bee = ballet, CJ = Tae Kwon Do). They were to include the type of class it is, their teacher's name and something they've learned. To help get things rolling, we generated a list of words they might use, including "teacher's," which gave us a chance to talk about possessives.

MOSTLY MOZART: For morning music, we played Mozart. On our playlist were Minuet in G, Minuet from Don Juan, The Marriage of Figaro (a familiar favorite to the kids, along with this Eine Kleine Nachtmusik), and we were ready to charge into battle after hearing Mozart's Requiem. We had no idea what the hell they were singing about during Requiem (in Italian?), so we made up some of our own lyrics (hey, the Little Einsteins do it, why can't we?) and it turned into an epic about a man whose donuts were stolen. We also listened to the compelling Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante and even a Mozart minuet done by The Ventures. Weird (and I don't mean bad - it was just, well, different. "I like that music," said Annabelle. Apparently The Ventures recorded a whole album of classical music in 1972, called "Joy.")

SE HABLA ENGLISH?: It's been sitting on a shelf for four weeks now, mocking me: Muzzy, the confusing bear-like alien who is supposed to be the master of teaching children a non-native language. So I finally busted out the DVDs. Dammit, TODAY would be the day my kids learn Spanish!

So I pop the DVD in and we're at the root menu and it's all in English. Makes sense. In fact, one might expect that since we're trying to learn Spanish (and are presumably starting as native English speakers). Yeah, well, the whole DVD, subtitles and all, are in English. Nuttin' but English. We'd been duped! (How do you say that in Spanish, I wonder ...)

Interestingly, the kids insisted on watching it anyway. I guess that's good - they found the video and (for whatever reason) stilted dialogue engaging.

One genuine upside was that the kit did come with a PC game, on which we were able to opt to receive instructions in English but go on and adventure in Spanish. So the kids played (and learned) with that for a good hour.

THERE IS ANOTHER: This morning, when pondering MPA's schedule for the day, for a fleeting moment I had the thought: "Hey, I think it's a Seattle Homeschool Group park day." I looked around for the latest newsletter, as I knew it would have the location listed, but after about 60 seconds of half-hearted searching, I gave up. (We'll go one day. Really we will.) Meanwhile, via an email today, I learned about the existence of another group for families going it alone: Washington Teacher Parent Association. It might sound silly, but I like its name; to me, it sounds like a bit of a play on the stalwart Parent Teacher Associations so present in real schools! So, that's yet another resource to check out. Some day.

DRAMATIC ARTS: This afternoon, CJ set up a stage on the new copper topped island and used Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines as his cast of characters. He requested an audience (namely me) and had a stool ready for me. Annabelle was "backstage," he explained. Her job was being the sun. She played her part well. : )YOGA BEARS: After a two week hiatus we were back at Lotus Yoga this afternoon. This kids were both happy to see their friend Iris there and seemed to get right back into the OM mindset once class started.

SEEING PINK ELEPHANTS: In other news, I got an email today that Laureate Education, Inc. wants to use a photo of mine in an online tutorial for a Masters of Science in Instructional Design and Technology course. If memory serves, I took this shot when we went on that fun "Ride the Ducks" tour of Seattle with Nonnie and Bops last November. I granted permission, of course - happy to support an educational cause!

Twenty Ten

JANUARY (chow-ch-chow-chow-chow): We started off this morning by crafting a January calendar. Of course, this meant reciting the "Thirty days has September" poem. Days of importance we marked included MLK Day, as well as our regular gigs (yoga, music, ballet) and an exciting new addition to the calendar - Tae Kwon Do for CJ on Monday and Wednesdays. This month also marks the first of several "special holidays" we'll call Daddy Furlough Day (City of Seattle employees are being 'given' one day off a month this year in a budget cutting measure).

The kids see Furlough Day as a boon, as it means an extra day a month with Dad around. :) I see the upside, for certain, but also I'm old enough to know it comes with a hit to the checkbook. But I digress ...

DECEMBER REWIND: Before diving into new work, we took a few moments to take a look back at the papers from December that had accumulated in their folders. We found lots of math worksheets (addition and subtraction, story problems, patterns, money values and more), info about hibernation, the Arctic and glaciers. Literacy work included writing about Rudolph, their favorite Christmas ornament and Santa letters. There were also exercises dealing with alphabetical order, a concept we introduced in December. I think this look back gives the kids a sense of accomplishment - and it helps me keep track of where we've been and where we should be going!


GOING FOR BAROQUE: For morning music, we got our classical on. Man, if Vivaldi's Winter violin concerto doesn't make you feel better about the short days and miserable weather, nothing will. We cranked up the volume, had the bass shaking and played it twice - the kids were totally into it, dancing around the house.

According to Wikipedia: "The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Op. 8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). The first four concertos were designated Le quattro stagioni, each being named after a season. Each one is in three movements, with a slow movement between two faster ones.

LETTERS, WE'VE GOT LETTERS: Today's literacy exercises included filling missing letters into blanks (kind of like playing hangman) and writing a couple more thank you letters. The kids also addressed a couple of envelopes. They took extra care trying to make their envelope writing legible, as I told them if the mail people can't read it, their lovely little notes won't get delivered.

One of the things we worked on today (and we'll work more on in the days to come) was phonemes (easy for you to say!). For help we turned to Colin the Clam on the BBC's education Web site. He was the host of Sandcastle Quiz. Colin would say words and the kids would have to guess which letters were correct to complete them. For instance, Colin might say "owl" and then choices would be "ow" or "ou." The kids did well at the exercise - in fact, I think the hardest part was them getting used to Colin's British accent!

SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN: For math today, we broke out the brand new The Price is Right game from Grandma and Grandpa. It's a DVD-based game, which is nice for a change. We spend plenty of time on the computer.

It was easy to understand and play and a really great gateway to get the kids thinking about bigger numbers (hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands). For instance, once CJ was supposed to write down the value of a scooter he'd won. I told him to write "two thousand four hundred and ninety nine." He wrote it 2000 400 99, which makes perfect sense, of course. So we talked about ones, tens, hundreds and thousands digits/places. Good stuff to know. As they game progressed, they definitely were getting the hang of writing four and even five digit numbers.

It was funny - while playing you would have thought Annabelle was right there on contestants' row. She would shriek every time a prize was announced, and jump up and down clapping and cheering. (Her enthusiasm paid off. She did manage to win TWO cars during one go-round!)

SWEET SPOT: Sunday, I spied an awesome furniture find on Craigslist - a gorgeous, well-built copper topped bar which could function quite nicely as our kitchen island. At just $150 (it was a recently-transplanted millionaire's cast off. The cars in their garage were worth way more than our house!) it was worth the drive to Issaquah - about 35 minutes to the east. So off we went, across Lake Washington, through Bellevue and to Issaquah.

But wait - what's this I see on a highway sign at the exit just before our destination? Why, it says "Tourist Attraction - Boehms Candies." A CHOCOLATE FACTORY?! Are you kidding me?

Clearly, it was Destiny.
And so we found ourselves at Boehms Candies Inc. The story behind the business is inspired - former Olympian Julius Boehm fled Nazi Germany (by skiing over the Alps!0 and wound up in the PacNW in 1941. He and a friend opened their first candy shop in Seattle in 1943. In 1956, Julius moved Boehms Candies to the Issaquah foothills, where it remains.

The present day Boehms factory looks its age. I have to think that perhaps the grounds are a couple of decades past their prime. IMHO, the phrase "tired kitschy meets Americanized Austrian" might best describe it. ...

By inquiring at the candy store/chalet, we found out that on this day taking a factory tour meant that we could shuffle past windows, on the outside looking in. And so, we did. We saw old pots and burners but, alas, no chocolatiers at work today (not too surprising, really, given it was a Sunday right after New Year's Day).

The most interesting part of the "tour" was seeing some of the molds they use to make chocolate figurines. In the last window we did see a worker - just some young woman in an Alpine-y getup, poking around at empty chocolate boxes.
Despite the disappointments, it still was a boon to have stumbled upon the place, and the kids each got to pick out several chocolate treats to take with, so it's all good! (We're still going to go on a tour of Theo Chocolates - and hopefully see some real live chocolate production, perhaps along these lines ...)

KARATE KID: Tonight was CJ's first martial arts class! I found a class he and Christian could take together, conveniently held at the nearby Queen Anne Community Center. The class ran from 6 to 7 and it sounds like it was all sorts of fun - and a good workout! The teacher is a black belt whom they are supposed to call Ms. Ahn (apparently sensei is a Japanese term, and not used in Tae Kwon Do). (As it turns out, by day, the fourth degree black belt is a financial analyst for Nordstrom.)

They got right into form work and punching and kicking tonight! CJ got to do some of his exercises with the teacher, which I'm sure was fun for him. For CJ's homework, he was asked to find out and memorize the meaning of courtesy. Christian did a quick Web search when we got home and learned that YE-UI (courtesy) is the first tenet of Tae Kwon Do.

TEACHING ME A THING OR TWO: While the guys were doing their thing, Annabelle and I did an aerobic workout followed by Pilates. During the cool down stretches after aerobics, Bee said, "Oh, this is like ballet - Plié second position!" During a later stretch she noted, "This is like the elephant pose," which she knows from yoga. Nice to know these things are sticking with her, and interesting to note the crossovers.

SAY WHAT?: Just before bedtime, while playing with Ninja Turtles, out of nowhere CJ asked, "What does 'prototypic' mean?"