Questions, questions, questions...

Here are some interesting questions I've had from Bastien the past few days...
After seeing something for Halloween with a decapitated body...
What happens to the head?
I said something like "Well, usually peoples' heads are attached when they die. That's just to look creepy."
Where do you put a person's body after they die? It gets buried in the ground. How do you know where someone's buried? They put tombstones there with the person's name on it.
What happens if the name is too long to put on the tombstone?

While watching a Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! episode about space...
What would happen if you went to space without a rocket? What if you were out there and you didn't have a string attached to something?
Uhmmm.... Then he told me, I want to go into space, but I don't want to wear a seatbelt and can you turn the gravity button off? Is there a Planet Fun in this real world?
He has been very interested in what is real and what is not. At Jack In The Box, he asked me, is there a real guy in the Jack In The Box head? I said, no, that's just his head. How do you know that?
I guess I shouldn't lie. I'm having a hard time with that right now. Not lying, per se, just how much to give away. Do I tell him that Santa Claus isn't real? That would be sad. But then, it's good to tell him all the scary Halloween stuff isn't real.
He asked me what happens after you die too. I told him that since nobody dies and comes back to life, there's no one to tell us - so nobody knows. He said it would be nice if you could come back as another person. (Is this kid a Buddhist already?) I told him some people do believe that and maybe it's true, but nobody knows for sure.
I much prefer these kinds of questions...
What's a "toupee"?

All those questions from this...

Post From The Past - Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh - Gay Your Life Must Be!

I meant to do a post on the zoo trip I took with just Bastien a while back. I have to admit I didn't get all excited about the zoo until my twenties when I went with Jason and my mother-in-law in San Antonio. Their zoo is amazing and I just couldn't believe all the animals you could see in the middle of Texas. I guess I was just old enough to "really appreciate it". I did a trip with Isabella the Friday before this one, just a mother-daughter thing, but I think she was just too young. We spent more time at their little playground than checking out animals. Fun, but not the "zoo" experience I was looking for. Then, I took Bastien a week later for mother-son day, and that was more like it.I signed us up for a class in the morning at the LA Zoo. The theme was "Flamingos". That's all they had at the time, so what are you gonna do?

It's a fun little program called Critters N Kids. You start in the classroom where the teacher tells you all about the topic (in our case, yes, flamingos). There's a circle time, story, and some hands on interactive learning stations. We played with flamingo eggs and I don't remember what else. (Maybe that's why you should blog while it's fresh in your mind, as opposed to months later). The one super plus is that they offer the class the hour before the zoo opens. This allows you to then wander around in the zoo before everybody else gets there. It's nice and cool, and they are bringing out all the animals and feeding them so you get a chance to see them all. Check out the good animal sightings...

Bastien's favorites were the lion and tiger...Hey, they really do like bananas...

Kinda fuzzy, but how cool is this animal?! I was amazed when I saw it. The kid book pictures just don't do this uniqueness justice! I am reminded of the rhino in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and realize the animated version wasn't too different than the live one. Check out that armour.

Is this guy coughing? Or singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"?

My favorite of the trip. This guy is so Dr. Suess. A Gerenuk...

The zoo started out a big hit with Bastien. We had ice cream before noon.

And, as you can see, I splurged on the expensive tiger lunch box. Well, it was his favorite animal...

Then we got some poses...

After lunch, we saw this guy and I was reminded so much of my childhood. The Kookaburra song just doesn't come up again after say, ten years old. I was happy to see the right lyrics, just to check.
The really fun thing was how into maps Bastien was. Everytime we saw one, he would say "Now, where are we?" and have fun dictating where we needed to go next. Maybe he won't be functionally illiterate despite his mother.Then, we had this surprise. A koala named "Baz".

Uh oh, we landed near an ice cream vending machine. Look how happy he is...And how pissed he is when I say "no more ice cream".

I hate to end on a sour note, when the day was so great. But these are the truths of child-rearing. An ice cream vending machine + no nap + lots of exciting activity= Operation Meltdown. To be honest, sometimes you feel like, "why do I even bother?" But then, my dad gave me some great advice (amidst some bad advice I won't go into) about doing things for your kids. He asked me if I do these things for me or the kids? Hard to answer. Then, he warned me, "Don't set your kids up for all these sacrifices they need to repay. If it's fun for you, great, but if not, don't torture yourself on their behalf and get mad when they don't appreciate it." Well, that's not exactly what he said, but that's what I got out of it.

Good to remember.

Mourning The Loss Of Childhood

Tonight, Bastien asked if he could be four again. Of course, I told him it wasn't going to happen. I asked if he didn't want to grow up and be five. He said he'd rather start over again with four.

Yeah, me too.

PlayDaily coming again this Saturday!

Last March, I heard about this event for kids called PlayDaily. It was a Saturday morning and it was being hosted at Cinespace in Hollywood, a place I had always wanted to visit. They didn't say too much about it except that kids would be able to play with light and shadow. It piqued my interest.

Well, we walk in and the first room is this...

...a black light room filled with balloons. It's hard to take pictures but we did our best. There was nothing structured, just lots of things to play with and discover. Balloons, scarves, and hand puppets...

this whole wall of blank paper and tons of hi-lighter pens...

Really fun. Then we wandered through the bar area (which has little tvs in the structural pillars - cool!), passed through an area with overhead projectors where the kids could make shadows or play with flashlights, and ended in the dance space.

They were projecting some underwater scenes and playing disco/hip hop music. If you know my kids, you know they love to dance, so this was a hit. They could also climb up on the platform. They liked that part too.

These are the glasses that were on every table. If you put them on, you see this...

We met some friends and there were plenty of booths and tables to sit and chat while the kids ran around. And free snacks and drinks. That helps keep the kiddos happy.

Apparently, this is the brainchild of Julianne Wurm, an educator who is working on a doctorate in Early Childhood Education. She started as a member of Teach For America (hello Wade and Michelle, do you know this woman by chance?) teaching kids in inner city Houston (nice coincidence). Another interesting coincidence...About a month before this, I had picked up a copy of Scientific American Mind. The main impetus was this crazy show they were showing on Discovery or The Science Channel called Secret Life Of The Mind. There were only 5 episodes I think, but it was unbelievably fascinating (well, to me, anyway). I tried looking it up on the internet but there is NOTHING out there, almost like the show never existed. I just loved it and felt starved for more information about the brain. Then I saw this magazine on the newsstand that I have never seen before and picked it up. The cover story: "The Serious Need For Play".

What is lying around everywhere when we get there? Copies of this article, of course.

So, it's happening again this Saturday at Cinespace again. I don't know if it's the same theme but we are definitely going. Maybe we'll see some of you there?

The Girl In Blue

This is a girl after my own heart...boogying to some Reverend Horton Heat....

Isabella and Isabella

This is the doll my Aunt Susie restored for Isabella. We named her Isabella 2. My mom made the dresses for both Isabellas. Ridiculously cute. Thanks Aunt Susie and Mom!!!

Fairy Houses and Flower People

Well, we are in the wilderness right now, so it seemed appropriate to do some wildernessy things with the kids. I have to admit that I get a little bored with the wilderness, unless I have some kind of project or goal. Like, exploring a place I don't think someone has been or climbing an impossibly hard mountain. I really am a city girl at heart. I probably get more excited about a street packed with stores and restaurants and even a burnt out building or two than I do about a gorgeous mountain vista. So, this year, I've been trying to learn what all these wildflowers are that I've been seeing for over thirty years now (yeah, about time, huh?). It has been very fun, but a lot harder than I thought it would be. Oh well, I like a challenge.

So I saw somewhere some craft making flower people and that was kinda fun.

This one looks like it belongs in the tropics somewhere, what with that fringy skirt and Carmen Miranda headpiece.

Nice face.

Then I found some idea about making fairy houses and this one was genius! I could make the wilderness look like a city of some sort and the kids could collect stuff and help me build them. I thought we would all have fun doing this one. However, a two year old doesn't have much of an attention span and I didn't exactly bring a diaper bag with me into the woods. I noticed some strange behavior from Isabella and immediately sensed that it was time for a poop. I asked her if I was right and she confirmed my suspicions.

(See our little fairy house on the right?)

So then, we had a true wilderness adventure...Isabella's first poop in the woods. I was especially proud about this because she isn't potty trained, but she cooperated really well. And it made my quarter mile walk back to the house much more pleasant.

Before we left, I got a picture of Bastien with our house and told him we would come back again without Isabella. I think he was secretly thrilled that it would just be us two, but I don't know ...he sure loves his sister. Witness...

This never fails to melt my heart. Funny side note, they have been trying to get me to let them sleep together. I tried it once and Isabella just kept screwing around and I had to put her in the Pack N Play eventually. A few nights later, they tried again, and it was so cute hearing Bastien try to talk Isabella into behaving so it would work out. Of course, she just can't stay still and she really is the troublemaker of the two - so it didn't work out again. But Bastien's disappointment was really endearing. He is such a sweetheart. On the other hand, she just thinks everything he does is the coolest. It's like having a little shadow for Bastien, she has to do everything he does. Luckily, he usually has a lot of patience for it. So I'm glad then he had me to himself later... Here's the fairy house we made...

In the directions I found online, you aren't supposed to use living things (flowers, etc), just already dead stuff. I'm sorry, but when you are in a place that is miles and miles of this stuff and you see that the flowers only last a few days, you feel it is your duty to give them a starring role in a fairy house. Not such a bad way to go. And I think the fairies will appreciate the added color.

I got asked a lot of questions about fairies today that I was not prepared to answer. Are there male fairies? Do fairies laugh? Can fairies swim? How big are they? Do bugs eat fairies? And the kicker...are they real? Well, I just had to wing it.

By the way, this fairy house had the added benefit of being seaside...

I don't know if you can see it on the right, but that's some pretty prime property. Bastien felt the need to take a dip in the "sea" so I told him to take off his pants so they wouldn't get wet. I guess he thought I meant underwear too, so it was a pretty funny sight. Wish I had taken a picture of that.