**We went to the Children's Museum on Tuesday and discovered the fun treehouse exhibit we've been enjoying all summer has been replaced by a "blood-suckers" exhibit. I learned more than I wanted to about mosquitoes. There is also a tank full of leeches, and it made me happy when Harper said, "Like the ones that got on Nelly Olsen when Laura tricked her!"
**Speaking of books, I believe I've mentioned that the husband has been reading through the Narnia series with Harper and Hudson before bedtime. Hudson says "In Arnia" instead of "in Narnia" which makes me giggle.
**And on the subject of mispronunciations, Harper has always pronounced words that end in 'rn' with an extra 'i'. I first noticed it with the word 'pattern' which she pronounces "patterin." Other favorites are the planet of Saturin and the camping light lanterin. Now Hudson says them that way too. Feel free to call your neighborhood speech pathologist and send them over post haste.
**It was my birthday on Thursday and I am now 41. We went out to dinner and I got a dessert called Charlotte's Web and it was a trifle sort of thing with pieces of chocolate cake, white chocolate espresso pudding, whipped cream, and an entire Heath bar crumbled on the top. Happy birthday to me.
**My friend Molly called and invited me to join her at the symphony on Friday night. We used her dad's very excellent season tickets (5th row center) and thoroughly enjoyed the musical stylings of Idina Menzel. Idina Menzel was barefoot and full of amusing anecdotes. She sang songs from "Wicked," "Rent", (I'm not sure where that comma is supposed to go--it looks odd both ways) and "Glee." She stopped and apologized several times during the "Glee" song for making a symphony orchestra play Lady Gaga. The first half of the program (sans Idina Menzel) included Wagner and "The Funky Chicken." The conductor amuses me with his jiggy, energetic conducting and unconventional choices. He was trying to play songs that all had something to do with defying gravity (get it?) and chickens who try to fly do indeed seem to be in defiance of gravity.
**I had the thought, while watching the orchestra, that most of the musicians seemed to be about my age (now that I am "in my 40's") and this made me a little sad. I think it's officially too late for me to be a cellist in a symphony orchestra. Considering I've never actually played the cello. I had the same thought when we watched the ballet dancers a few weeks ago. On the bright side, the cello is much more likely than the professional ballet dancing.
**The kids do a presentation every week at our Classical Conversations group (it's pretty much show and tell) and this week Harper took an acorn she found and this visual aid:
I'll admit I encouraged her to take it up a notch after last week, when she brought a few of her rubber Squinkies and said, "My name is Harper and these are my Squinkies. I bought them at Target with some of my allowance money. Any questions?" Then another little girl got up next and showed the class this illustrated history of the ancient world that she had compiled when she was 4. There were paper dolls of Greek philosophers and pop-up pyramids and everything. It was awesome.
**I caught Hudson locking Helena out of his room one day and told him it was not allowed. He said, "But she plays with my Squinkies and she says 'POO POO' to me and she hits me!" I'm pretty sure at least two of those accusations are founded, but he still doesn't get to lock her out.
**Saturday night, the husband and I went to a dinner party with 3 other couples and it was delightful. At one point, the husbands were on one end of the table having a very spirited discussion about politics, while we on the Wife End discussed shopping and high school escapades and homeschooling. I thought to myself, "How grown-up we are!!" The other very big deal is that we had our first baby sitter who was not my mother.
**During the big Saturday house clean-up (because of the impending visit of the not-related-to-us babysitter) I found this scrap of paper on my desk, on which I had jotted a conversation between Harper and Hudson from around a year ago:
Harper: Hudson! Do you know that you did something very unkind?
Hudson: YES!
Harper: You ERASED my BEAUTIFUL drawing on the chalk board Hudson.
Hudson: I like red, Hopper.
Harper: I DON'T.
Hudson: You like pink, Hopper?
Harper: I like pink better than you! I'm not going to play sleepover with you tonight. I will make you play something you DON'T want to play! I will play by myself for the rest of my life.
It reminds me to be thankful for how much more harmonious their relationship is now.
And now, another week has begun. What will it bring, I wonder?
1 comment:
Only 41. Sounds so very young.
Happy late birthday!
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