Hensen and Us

Thanks to the Smithsonian Museum day, the boys and I went to the Puppet Center downtown to see their musuem. The Jim Hensen Foundation has offered them the great opportunity of displaying Hensen's Muppets in their museum for a long-term exhibit. So we went to look at Big Bird, some Fraggles, some puppets from Labarynth, Rowlf, Kermit, and others. (In the main museum, they have a Skeksis from Dark Crystal.) Kermit and Big Bird sang to us, and Hensen explained a number of tricks he used in his puppeteering. All in all it was great fun.

Here's the group of us that the entrance to the main museum--inside the door is a garbage can that turns into a bird when you push a button. It frightened our oldest pretty badly. But after coaxing him through that and the second room, he had a ball with a show of Super Kangaroo and manipulating his own baby bird (only two controls; I got to help him with the Shape Shifter's head which required four controls to manipulated the 6 mechanical parts).

I tried to get a picture of both boys, but the oldest dropped his brother right as I pushed the button and the picture flashed right as I was reaching to grab the youngest after he fell off his brother's lap on the shoe. Not much of a picture.

The Sandman

Yesterday I let the littlest guy play in the sandbox with his brother for the first time. (Now I was willing to let him play earlier, but he just wasn't interested.) He thought it was great! He only tasted the sand once and didn't like it, but he thought that sweeping it around with his hands was so much fun.

His older brother was very patient with the little guy. He didn't throw sand or dump it outside of the sandbox. He shared his sand toys and was excited that his brother liked the sandbox too. (Of course, that attitude didn't last all day. Eventually he wanted his toys back and was done sharing.) The littlest fussed when I decided that it was enough, and his diaper was filled with sand. He got a quick rinse in the bathroom sink and then went down for a nap.

Got gas?

A gas shortage. I have never experienced this anywhere--when there was a gas shortage in Arizona five years ago, we were just moving from Utah and experienced it second-hand (my in-laws met us to help drive the rental truck and my brother-in-law and his wife, who drove them up, took all the family's gas containers to Flagstaff to fill up since there was no gas in Mesa).

Since we don't really have the news, I didn't know that there was a shortage until at book group on Tuesday night, one of the women explained that she had to stop on the way to the meet her husband in the ER to get gas and it took three gas stations to get one with gas. The next morning, on my way back from the doctors, I passed seven gas stations without gas before I found one that still had gas--and the line was only five cars long. I was lucky. Since then the lines have regularly been at least 10 cars long (and there are at least two lines at every gas station--one coming off every entrance--and lines behind each pump). And I overheard some women (who obviously have the news) discussing that we won't have gas for another two weeks.

Who knows how long this will last. Until then, I'm only driving to preschool and church. So, feel free to call anytime. I'll be home.

Cooking Kids

I taught the oldest boy's preschool this week. My assigned topics were B and 2, so on the first day we made bat puppets and read books about bats, birds, and blueberries. On the seconds day each of the children came with something they could do becuase they were big and not babies: jumping, gymnastics, brushing teeth, running, etc. Because they were big, we also decided to make cookies. So here are the little bakers in their aprons before they started mixing.

The Shiner

The oldest pegged his younger brother in the eye with a wooden crane. (This just a few days after he had done the same thing and left a cut under his brother's eye. There were many other thrown toys in between the two injuries.) The older brother (and the crane) were on time out.

I'm a big kid now . . .

I've been trying to catch this on video for a while, but every time I pull the camera out, the youngest decides what I'm doing with the camera is more intersting than what he was doing before. So yesterday I was super sneaky. I kept pulling him back across the room with Chewy le Bon (the front loader) and letting him walk across the floor while I got the camera set up. But then I noticed that he isn't just walking with Chewy le Bon, he also pushes the step stool his grandparents sent and buckets. He cruises along the couch, the coffee table, the keyboard stand.

I'm not 100% sure if I'm ready for him to be walking. I mean, he is only 10 months and he did just barely get the hang of eating real food (including baby food) and he just barely cutting his first tooth and he is still in 3–6 month clothes (with some 6–9 month clothes thrown in on the side) and he still wakes up twice a night to nurse and . . . I guess he is just growing up.

"I can dress myself!"

Camouflage hat; neon green shirt; brown and red plaid shorts; orange pink, and yellow striped socks: oh to be three and pick out whatever you want to wear, regardless of fashion. In this case, our oldest actually put on his shirt himself while I was digging through the shirt drawer to try and find something that would be approved and would match more. It was the first time he had done it all himself.