It was a little chilly and Weston was rubbing his hand on Claire’s sleeve which must have generated some heat because he said, “Mama, you’re hot.” Claire was flattered for a second or two and responded with an emphatic “Thank you!”
Pixar
It always warms my heart to hear my kids quoting lines from Pixar movies…here are a few examples:
Weston, this is not about you! -Julia (The Incredibles)
That’s not funny — and I know funny! -Weston (Nemo)
Why are you sleeping? -Weston (Nemo)
He touched the butt! -Weston (Nemo)
King Con
One of our kids’ favorite pastimes is standing on the window sill and watching the people below on Broadway. Because of Conrad’s bull-legged stance, unintelligible grunting noises, and constant banging on the window, I told Claire that he looked like King Kong. Weston thought that was funny and said, “His name is Conrad, not King Con.”
Merry Christmas
We finally got our Christmas card out on time. If you didn’t get the email, click here.
Jellyfish
Claire: “Do you know who was really stung by a jellyfish?”
Julia: “Who??”
Rich: “I was stung by a jellyfish.”
Julia: “Tell us the story, Papa.”
Rich: “Well…”
Weston interrupts: “Once upon a time, Papa got stingeded.”
Rich: “The end.”
Under the Sea
Despite my pleading, Claire would not let us take the $15 Fung Wah bus to Boston this Thanksgiving. That didn’t stop Julia from throwing up and we had two eruptions on the way. The difference was this time we could pull over and clean ourselves up. Maybe Claire is right about the bus.
We wound up having a great time. One highlight was the New England Aquarium. There we took the kids to their first IMAX experience. We were told the tamest show playing was Deep Sea 3D, but I guess everything is relative. I carefully balanced the 3D glasses on Weston’s nose and watched closely and tried to gauge his reaction. Right after the opening credits a fish swam toward us and Weston let out an extremely impressive scream. I quickly removed the glasses and he calmed down. I kept putting the glasses back on, hoping he’d get used to it. It was like flipping a light switch off and on. If I put the glasses on, he’d scream. If I took them off, he’d be quiet. I felt bad because he could either be frightened or watch blurry patterns move across the screen (The movie is meant to be watched in 3D). Julia, on the other hand, had the time of her life. She was standing and trying to grab the jellyfish that appeared to be swimming in front of her. I imagine she was a quite a nuisance for the lady with poofy white hair who was sitting in front of us. I was worried it was going to be another instance like the hot dog at the Mets game.
Weston enjoyed the aquarium much more than the movie and loved watching the sharks swim by. Julia walked around the aquarium like a jellyfish bobbing up and down. So, Julia is now “Princess Julia Jellyfish” and Weston is “Please-don’t-eat-me-I’m-too-young-to-die Weston.”
Later, dude
Weston chuckles and says, “Bye bye, little crocodile.”
Rich looks at him blankly, wondering why he just called him a crocodile.
Claire clarifies (Get it?…hehehe), “See you in a while crocodile.”
Soooo good…
[youtube 2BtxhqfNnwY]
Let’s hope we never have a fire
Claire: How do we prepare for a fire?
Julia: Love.
Claire: But what do we DO if there is a fire?
Julia: Share.
Claire: That’s good, Julia. Those are both good instincts.
Weston: If there’s a fire, I will kill it with my SWORD!!!
Claire: Good, Weston. Those are…good…uh…protective instincts.
Little Mad Scientists
These photos were taken by a student who is doing a project based on kids learning about science. When he asked me, I thought he knew about my mad scientist renderings, but it turns out we each came up with the idea independently. Rather than asking strangers in the park if he could take photos of their kids, he and I met up and lucked out on some pretty good shots. The kids were surprisingly willing to play along.
