May the fort be with you

A few months ago, Hudson got a Star Wars Lego book from the library and so began what is, apparently, an inevitable obsession. We're still several years from viewing the movies (though I believe they watched a few minutes with the Daddy when he happened upon one on cable a few days ago. Harper ran and hid, because she is extremely wary of potentially Scary Images) but that has deterred him not at ALL. He asks me questions for which I have no answers, since I haven't seen most of the movies, and the ones I have seen were not very interesting to me when I saw them in the late 1970's. So he'll ask many, many specific questions about Who Are the Bad Guys and Who Has a Knife and What Planet and How Many Guns and How Tall is Chewbacca and I just shrug and say I don't really know but that when he gets older he can watch the movies and find out all for himself. He says he'll watch when he is "around 17" and I say that sounds fine. Here's how he pronounced the characters he knows about so far (until Harper corrected him, and not very kindly):
1. Everyone Kenobi
2. Dark Vader (was Dark Mater, which, incidentally, I think would make a great sub-plot in the next "Cars" installment. I call trademark.)
3. Lute Stywalter
4. And of course, they all use their Life Savers to fight.

Actual interchange that occurred yesterday:

(LOUD YELLING.)
me: Harper, do you remember what I said about yelling?
Harper: You said no screaming.

If law schools offered early acceptance to 6 year olds, I'd enroll her right now.

While she was yelling, but not screaming, Hudson was playing his drums and singing a charming little ditty he calls the "I Smell Poo-poo Song!"

Also on yesterday's Best Things List was the fact that we went to the Children's Museum and we ended up downstairs because the whole place was pretty crowded and noisy. The kids played with the Legos and did a few experiments with the wind tunnels then we went into this obstacle course area, which I generally avoid because there is a Power Tower that is only for kids 5 and older, which means disappointing 2/3rds of my kids. I was lifting Helena over into this little obstacle course area when I realized that what I thought was a closed gate was actually quite open and it proceeded to swing open with me on top of it and I lost my balance completely and ended up folded over in a downward dog sort of pose (still dangling poor Helena) with my feet lifted off the ground and apparently I am top heavy because once I managed to get Helena on her feet I still couldn't get myself back upright. A nice lady came to help me and I was mortified and also felt as if I had sustained, at the least, a liver laceration, and also possibly some sort of aortic tear and maybe an aneurysm. My left arm is still tingling a little. And my pride is damaged beyond all repair.

Then today we stayed home and I tried doing math with Harper in the morning instead of when the other two are napping, which is when we usually do our reading and school time. It went okay but not great. Helena played nicely with the counting bears for about 10 minutes, then she spread the transportation counters all over the floor, and got very intent on knocking down the counting blocks Harper was using for her lesson.

Then Harper and Hudson built a fort and Harper used this pink embroidery thread to create a spider web for "trapping naughty Helena Janes":Which, incidentally, might make a slightly less heartwarming sequel to Charlotte's Web.

Then, while I made dinner, Harper practiced skating in the kitchen WHILE playing a never-ending loop of "The Ants Go Marching" on her kazoo, WHILE ALSO keeping time by banging a hammer on a metal coffee can, while Hudson drummed and then did a little soft shoe and then practiced dribbling his basketball then played a twangy little something on the one string left on his guitar:


Enormous thanks to the Grandparents Pate who spent the weekend braving this madness so the husband and I could go to a wedding in Dallas. The homecoming is always sweet. So very, very loud, but sweet all the same.