Fun With The Mail

In the mail, yesterday. It's a flyer for a school. A school. They invite me to consider how important the first 5 years of a child's development can be.

I agree, of course, though if I've done that badly it's too late. Iain's heading down the home stretch toward seven.

But let's say I sought a school for another child. A friend's child, perhaps. What questions might I ask?

I don't think, actually, that I'd ask this question. And I hope, fingers crossed, that if I ever decided to mail total strangers a flier about my school I'd get someone really, really detail-oriented to proofread it. Twice. Maybe three times.

Snowbird

Pickles are great! Who knew, Mom?

Winter fun times continue. While I drove aimlessly around town, thinking about lunch but failing to actually decide on something, then shopping, then feeling discontented with the weather, Charles took Iain to Snowbird.

There, he joined his two friends - whom he met during his first year in Utah, at the JCC, when he was 2 years old - for a run down one of the easier areas of the mountain.

Iain failed to embrace the early-season conditions. But he loved lunch. He came home to tell me all about how he ate the ENTIRE hamburger. And this time - for the first time - he tried the pickle.

Wow, Mom. Wow.

Storage

Our kitchen lacks storage. Not just any storage - though it's not exceptionally generous on regular cabinets. The problem lies in the available space for anything deep. Platters, appliances, anything more than 10 or 12 inches deep has only one place to go.

So we asked our friend Michel to build in some new storage. It'll hold the footstool (required in this kitchen for someone my height) (short) plus a shelf for the fryer, the KitchenAid mixer, and...maybe a fruit bowl or something. That liberates space in the one other deep cabinet.

These are photos of the build. It's painted but not yet counter-topped because we're hoping to re-use the teak leftover from the bathroom. But eventually, it should look as though it's contemporaneous with the existing cabinets.

Movies

Coolest dude in the theater. We've been on a movie kick lately, seeing 3-D space films at the IMAX theater in the Planetarium, visiting the actual planetarium dome theater, and even submitting to the Gateway experience for Big Hero 6.

Iain loves to wear his hoodie in the movies. I'm forever tugging it down. He pulls it back over his head.

Oops.

1. We moved a lot of kitchen tools to Long Beach. I sent my old, no-handle pyrex there.
2. I bought new, handle-y pyrex!
3. I loved my new, handle-y pyrex and used it all the time.
4. Last night, for example.
5. But remember those stories about pyrex exploding sometimes? Like, when it heated or cooled too fast?
6. Yep. Those are true.


But the pork tenderloin was delicious. So...

Iain Builds a Time Machine

Last week, Iain and I saw Big Hero 6. It's fantastic. While we watched I thought, "This is as good as Wall-E," and, "Wow."

If you've seen the movie, you know that it revolves in part around an invention that allows you to transport materials through a portal. Iain apparently found that part interesting. Above, he built something similar but he wants it to transport through time, rather than space.

[Here are some pictures of the portal in case you want to see what I'm talking about. It's basically a circle.]

Note that he attached it to the electrical system originally meant for a Lego train set. So it moves. And stuff.

Shhhhh!

Iain woke before us this morning. He's been in his room, playing and watching Digimon on his iPad.

Just now, he emerged to make breakfast. I don't think he knows I'm in the living room. He's making something - "strawberries!" I heard him whisper to himself - to solve a serious problem. "I'm starving to death! It's an emergency!" he just whispered. Dramatically, of course.

An emergency! No breakfast and it's almost 9 o'clock! My god, what will one do? Stay tuned...

ETA: 9:08am: he comes in, rubbing his tummy, and announces, "I think I'll just let that settle." [pause] "How long until lunch?" I laugh. "No, but really. How long?"