Old Toys, Reborn

 

Aunt Larissa and I had a Fisher Price airport and house when we were kids.  They have survived nearly four decades of storage and are now ready to be abused by another generation.

 

The question that has haunted me all these years is: Why in god's name do these people have no arms or legs? And why do all of the male characters wear cowboy hats?  Was there a horrible nuclear accident in Texas that I didn't hear about, producing tiny mutant limbless cowboys?  Oh, there's one guy that wears a saucepan instead of a cowboy hat.  That didn't make sense when I was a kid, and it doesn't make sense now. 

That Warm Feeling

Warmth is returning to the Carolinas.  The mini-irises bloomed first, back in February.  A brave daffodil also poked its yellow head above the ground, but Benjamin prematurely harvested it.  I tried to explain that flowers are for looking at and not for eating and/or grinding up in your fist and throwing on the ground.  We'll work on that.

We took advantage of a warm weekend in early March and dusted off the bikes and pedalled on the Greenway near campus.  Benjamin was still talking about it several days later.

Stuff is bloomin' all over the place.

Another sure sign that spring is here is the arrival of Claire's birthday.  Kempa came down and babysat while we went to Cirque du Soleil.  If you've never been to a Cirque du Soleil, imagine that one of the Ringling Brothers has been replaced by a gay Dr. Seuss.

Kempa got to read Benjamin his pre-bedtime stories and put him to bed so we could arrive on time for the show.  Thanks Kempa! 

Claire got a yummy ice cream cake from Cold Stone.

And of course a sushi dinner at Nakato. 

Claire got Benjamin a little sandbox to dig in.  The dump truck may be an inappropriate scale for this work area.

We went to NoDa today to enjoy a warm day. Benjamin checked out the big mural.

Can you spot the real kid in this picture? 

Tiny Bites

He has no concept of: 1) take a bite, 2) chew it up and swallow it, and 3) take another bite.  If you put an entire bucket of chicken down in front of him, I swear he'd just try to jam the whole lot of it in his mouth all at once.  He's like a gerbal, stuffing his cheeks full of chow.

Plus, it's gross.