me rite gud

Found this one on boing boing. While the title of his talk is semi sensationalist, Gever Tulley actually has some good ideas. Thinking about my childhood, I had tons of time to tinker. All of the items on his list were things I got a chance to experience as a kid. Sure I almost burned down the house and rendered our only telephone unusable for a couple days. But I learned to safely handle fire and keep very good track of the screws when taking things apart. In retrospect, the freedom to tinker was one of the best things my parents could have done for me. While I think we let our kids explore things on their own, its really time I start setting them up to do some of the things I did as a kid. Unfortunately I don’t think his book is available yet but I am looking forward to it. While the Dangerous Book for Boys (and Girls) is interesting, its also very tame. Hurrah for having fun playing with fire, knives, cars and big appliances.

Eamon was sitting alone at the dinner table.  He had been told that he was not to get out of his chair until he had eaten the designated pile of food.  I might also have mentioned something to the effect of him being scrawny.  And that unless he started eating more, a tough guy could come up, flick him on the forehead and Eamon would fall over. While he pushed food around his plate,  the rest of us cleaned up the house.  I was washing the dishes when I heard him say something about batman.  I shut off the water and mumble a huh?

Eamon:  Um,  I don’t really like Batman

Another mumbled huh?

Eamon: He can’t really fly or anything

Me:  Uh,  true….

E: He can’t even shoot lasers out of his eyes.

Me: So who do you like

E: Well,  Superman is all muscley and he can fly.

Me: Yeah I guess compared to superman, batman is kinda boring.

Eamon returns to pushing food around his plate, thinking deep thoughts about super hero supremacy.

This is where you get in, originally uploaded by edenacadia.

Yesterday we got the kids to willingly climb through a very small opening in the ground and go cave exploring. And no coercion was even remotely necessary! Both of them had a fantastic time crawling through the wet chilly passages of the Clarksville Caves. I thought for sure one them would get a little freaked out about the dark but I couldn’t even phase them with a joke about Gollum living under there somewhere. I think the opportunity to get as wet and muddy and gross as they wanted was too wonderful to pass up. It’s too bad we didn’t find this place sooner. We’ll have to get in atleast one more trip before we go.

flying, originally uploaded by tem.

Yesterday Eden had a friend’s birthday party to go to at Hoffman’s Playland so we all tagged along. Last time we had gone, the kids were much too small to go on any of the bigger rides so we mostly just sat and watched them ride the big fiberglass caterpillar around and around in circles. But this year Eamon was old enough to go on all the rides except for the bumper cars. So he and I went off and rode every ride that was for big kids. And he had the kind of fun you really secretly dream your kids will have at amusement parks. Especially when no one else has wanted to ride the vomit inducing rides with you since you were a kid. He was laughing hysterically as the tilta whirl slammed him into me and me into the side of the car. He was holding up his arms at the top of the roller coaster (which Andrea appropriately calls the bruise-a-coaster). He pretended he was flying as the umbrella ride whisked us practically upside down. He had the kind of pure exhilarating fun I still crave when I drive by an amusement park and see the crazy new rides. The ones that take you rolling through upside loops or drop you straight down from hundreds of feet up. Granted, Hoffman’s Playland barely counts as an amusement park but I now have high hopes of doing the crazy rides with Eamon when he is a little older.
We also did something else we have never done before at Hoffman’s: we used up our entire ticket book. Every other time we used about half and told ourselves that it wasn’t a problem since we would definitely make it back to use them up before the season was over.

ball head, originally uploaded by tem.

Andrea was going to blog this but couldn’t figure out what to say.
But what is there to say? We had Eamon’s head removed and a new one stuck on. A big red ball. Cause everyone wants kids that have big red balls for heads. Specially in our alternate universe of brightly colored stripes.

eyeballs, originally uploaded by tem.

looking back at all of eamon’s faces has brought me to the conclusion that he may have infact been a cartoon character in a previous life.

do I hafta?, originally uploaded by tem.

“how bout i eat 4 more bites”

“how about you finish”

“how bout I eat 100 bites”

“do what works”

zoom zoom zoom, originally uploaded by tem.

its so nice to have warm sun, green grass, spring breezes and kids scooting home from school.

socks, originally uploaded by tem.

Eamon is such a sleepyhead and he looks so comfy when he is sleeping in. All snuggled down under a blanket (usually pulled over his head), makes me wonder why I got out of bed.