Misting Fountain Hop

Ovaltine Moustache--and Unibrow

"I put a G on the G!"

Breakthrough!

Last night was an important night in our family as Donovan finally figured out how to blow bubbles. The whole "blowing" thing has been rather fraught for us as Donny was convinced that biting his lower lip was the proper embouchure for blowing bubbles or blowing out candles. Poor kid couldn't even blow out his own birthday candles. Any attempt to show him a better system would end in a meltdown (usually his).

Well, last night I was blowing some bubbles for him and he finally tried pursing his lips: BUBBLES! The kid was jumping up and down yelling, "I DID IT! I DID IT!" I decided to try the next level and asked if he wanted to blow out some candles. Still superexcited, he hopped into the kitchen while I lit the "fire fairies." I lit three candles and he blew them all out! It was great!

I would note here that "fire fairies" are a Waldorf thing--when the teachers light candles they sing a little Fire Fairy song. Mike and I have joked that the Fire Fairy song is like Waldorf Fight Club because Donny refuses to sing the song for us. He was so excited last night, tho, I thought I might catch him off guard. "If I light the candles again will you sing the Fire Fairy song for me?" Still jumping up and down, Donny said, "YEAH! Yeah, yeah YEAH!" So I lit the candles and what does he sing?: "Happy Birthday to You/Happy Birthday To You!..." Sigh.

It did remind me to look up the damn Fire Fairy Song. As you can see, its nice but I wasn't missing much.

My Son, The Singin' Frog

Mike took Lil' Amadeus to his "mini lesson" with the Suzuki teacher today. The result was pretty much what I was expecting, which was call back in 6 months. The kid's just not ready to take instruction, which considering he is a 3 year old should be no surprise. The funny thing is, he did what he did after his last lesson, which is he refused to do what the teacher wanted him to do when we ask him, but then 10 minutes later, he's doing it and he's so proud of himself that he's laughing. This time it was playing in a rhythm--and anyone who's ever played an instrument will be familiar with the "Mississippi Hot Dog" rhythm. Also, he bowed for the teacher but he would'nt bow for me. He did bow for Mike a little later on but I missed it.

So, yeah, the world isn't ready for our Boy Genius yet. Which is perfectly fine. The teacher said to come back in 6 months or so to see where he is. Mark your calendars for January 2011.

Ill Advised

Mike, Donovan and I had a rather ill advised evening tonight. We went out to Waterfront as I had some last minute shopping to do for a baby shower I will be attending tomorrow. This is a family member babyshower and I am going to support another mother and to pull some daughter in law duty. I'm sure it will be lovely but its no one I really know.

ANYhow, we thought we'd stop at Wendy's for dinner as we were in a hurry and one thing Donny will always eat is french fries. First, you can't read books like Radical Homemaking and Lunch Lessons and expect to really enjoy Wendy's. Second, we got there right as this gaggle of guys in their 20s got there. I am so spoiled in that I'm surrounded by people similar to me that seeing these guys in action came as sort of a shock. It was almost like being surrounded by wolves--you just keep quiet and hope they arent hungry. I think they were friends but they were being really mean to one another. One of the guys started to get pissed off and it was like blood in the water--they all started picking on him and pushing his buttons in this we're-just-playin' kind of way.

Watching them made me wonder if, despite our best efforts, Donovan might grow up to be an asshole. It also made me wonder if raising him on Silver Pennies and Charles Ives is the equivalent of releasing a 3 legged gazelle back onto the Serengeti. To continue with a metaphor.

But now I need to ask: have you ever seen Woodstock? The part where Country Joe and the Fish do the No More Rain! chant? Well, when the guys left, Donny started chanting, a la Country Joe, "No More Dudes! No More Dudes!" Not sure where that came from as Mike and I were both keeping our mouths shut while the Dudes were there.

I could'nt find the No More Rain chant on YouTube but here's some Country Joe from the same performance: Rock n' Soul, baby...

Wherein We Test the Hypothesis

I just asked Mike to play some notes on the piano and ask Donny what they were. He got all three right--and he was across the room so he was'nt cheating and looking at the keys.

And to think, I view the piano as the poor man's Nickelodeon Network: put him on the bench and I get 20 minutes to put away the dishes and refill the dishwasher. Amazing what a little benign neglect can do...