Marble painting

Long week for Sam and the mother of Sam. He was out most of the week with a head cold delivered to him during a recent playdate.

Yesterday he was fine, but it hadn't yet been 24 hrs since his temperature had spiked to 100 degrees, so he was forced to stay home. Susan, rising to the occasion and responding to Sam's sudden urge to paint, suggested marble painting.

In this method you tape a piece of paper to a cardboard box after putting some splotches of paint on it. You then drop some marbles in and move it around, allowing the marbles to Pollack up the paper.

As you can see, it was a real success. :-)

He's back in at school today. This morning he asked me on the way in, "Is there mini gold courses in Egypt?" I said I didn't know but could check (google says: Yes!), but Sam said he guessed not.

Miniature golf has taken up residence in the same part of his brain previously reserved for the board game Mousetrap.

Sam had a hard time going to school this morning. Played various delay tactics, and admitted in the car that he was worried about lunch and afraid he would eat alone, without friends. He said this with parentheses around his eyes, trying not to cry. I think he still remembers well the times when he was forced to sit alone at lunch to avoid peanut contamination.

Nothing harder than seeing your kid worry like this--even though I knew he'd be fine.

Right now Susan's on her way to pick him up from Montessori, and thence back to Juli Elliots', where Sam will enjoy his first ever cookie made with peanut-free dark-chocolate M&Ms (actually, Skippers, which are far superior) and almond butter. Yum! The day ends better than it begins, which is probably the way it should be.

Have a good weekend!

Maize Maze! (&c.)

I'd like to start with an excerpt from More Tales of Oliver Pig. It shows Mother Pig having the porcine equivalent of a very mild nervous breakdown, in which she ends up sitting in a tree. Good book. I found it inspiring. This is an author who has spent time with children.

In other news, Sam now can eat almonds. (Visit Susan's blog to learn more and win valuable prizes!)

Good weekend, too. Friday we went out on a date. We are now swapping babysitting time with friends, and used an Olive Garden gift card we got from points earned with our credit card. Happily, the company was top-notch.

Saturday Sam and I went to the nearby Wickham Farm, where we wandered through a corn maze. The husks were taller than I am, so we had the real experience. Early on out Sam wanted to know which way to go, so I told him the foolproof way of getting through a maze [*]--always turn left (or really, keep your left hand on a wall). I didn't realize it until later, but I thereby robbed Sam of the fun of wandering around a maze and taking some chances. [**] At least he remembered the secret of solving mazes and proudly told it to Mommy later. Learning is fun, right?

While we were there we also played miniature golf, which Sam is wild about. It may not be Pirate Island, but has many motorized obstructions, which he enjoys.

When it was time to leave--meaning, after Sam had milked Wickham's for all it was worth, doing everything but bounce on the big bouncy thing for $6 (puhlease), we made one last stop into their store. I was interested in some cherry preserves, which I have a weakness for. While I was looking Sam fell deeply in love with a jar of mint jelly. I tried to explain that he wouldn't like it. People put it on pork, I said. I chewed mint leaves as a kid, and it's the sort of thing you do when there's really nothing else to do. Still, the green jiggly mass mesmerized him, and he just couldn't believe I was right about it. We only escaped unjellied because the clerk couldn't guarantee it was peanut safe.

One day maybe I can use his allergy to keep him from getting into drugs (or other perils of youth). "Don't smoke pot--it might not be peanut safe!" Might just do the trick.

Sam's been framing hypotheses, and sometimes testing them. Today he was also happy to spot some homophones.

In other news, over homemade pizza tonight, Sam asked when he could go inside the earth. We've talked to him a little about the structure of the interior of the earth, since reading the comic book version of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. So I think when we are in Columbus next we'll have to see about visiting Old Man's Cave.

This afternoon we went to the Y to let Sam run around. He still does the charming thing young kids do where they feel the need to check in every so often. So he came over at one point and, inspired by my shirt, we played some Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. This evolved into Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock-Noun, where Noun can be about anything. Sometimes it's obvious who won--like, volcano beats flower. Sometimes there are ties when it's unclear. (I think we decided rain clouds beat river.) At any rate, fun.

Church may be rubbing off on Sam a little. At dinner when it came out that mommy was the one who'd thought of buying cones to use for ice cream, Sam declared her the best mommy he knows. (Earlier for other reasons I was the best daddy. Sam says he knows two daddies, which I suppose still could be worse.) Sam then paused, and said, "But God's my favorite person." Really, we don't feed him these lines. (On the other hand: It's now Monday morning. This morning I dropped Sam off for his first day of kindergarten. When I offered in the car on the way in to pray for his first day, he responded, "BOORRING!")

Sam's brain has grown the wrinkles relevant to building complex Lego structures. He's made half a dozen large 2D mazes recently, and this afternoon we made a big multilevel fort with a maze at its base. Playing with Sam gets better and better!

A final note of trivia: Susan has now claimed the mantle of Queen of Small Mammal Medication. Each day she delivers two pills to one cat, 1 ml of fluid to another, mixes Metamucil into the cat food, gives a tsp of medicine to Sam, and gives Sam a dose of the inhaler. And we are thinking of adding on four nostril squirts daily with Nasonex. I do help out a little. The last few nights I've been soaking Alex the cat's injured paw--last night I even squeezed some pus out! We all get to contribute.

[*] Isn't guaranteed to work if (a) the end of the maze is interior to the maze, or (b) there is a bridge within the maze. Or if there are multiple exits and you have the find the right one. Otherwise, it's sure to work.

[**] My mom was right when she said that the one rule of parenting is that the parents are always wrong. Not that Sam complained.

Spent the weekend at camp. It was cold and off-and-on rainy enough to scare away our neighbors, the Dorans. They are a hearty, sporting, up-at-dawn family (their camp has invited comparison to the Kennedy compound), and they headed south early Sunday, not even returning after church--so that gives you some idea what the weather was like.

We Collins-Gilbert-Collinses are not so easily deterred.

Arrived for dinner at the Hideaway Saturday, and enjoyed smores and a roaring fire before bedtime. Sunday we went on what Susan referred to as a "forced march" to MacEwen's point (sp?) to work up an appetite for lunch (BLTs!). The afternoon saw a rambling visit to the nearby Lampson Falls near Russell (where I amused a store clerk greatly by asking the whereabouts of the "Russell Falls" and was told to drive back the way had come, only turning right upon reaching the poorly signed relic of the old "Turnpike" night club--vintage upstate New York!).

Sam was thrilled to clamber over the rocks, and Susan experienced a more maternal type of thrill cautioning him not to fall to a grisly death.

Spaghetti carbonara for dinner--Italian charcoal workers never had it so good--then another fire to ward off the cold.

Sunday the sun came out long enough for a canoe ride to what is known locally (very locally) as Makeout Island (which has even been painted by a local artist!). Two soaked sneakers and a couple of hours later and, filled with more Hideaway food, we were heading south again.

A good weekend. Sam kept wondering where Nana and Grandad were and wanting to play with them--always a good sign!

Also shown here: Sam enjoying a plate of purple Jell-o at dinner last week (notice the cool shapes); Susan reading a tragic Doris Lessing novel in front of the fire; Sam coloring and cutting at camp; and a brief movie taken on M.O.I.--a movie so enthralling one of the two subjects can't suppress a yawn during it.

And now, since you've read this far, your reward, two jokes from Sam:

Sam: Why did the elephant cross the road?
Susan: Why?
Sam? To stomp on all the houses and buildings on the other side.
Susan: Why did the dog cross the road?
Sam: Why?
Susan: To get away from this elephant that was stomping everything.
Sam: Ha ha ha ha ha ha! [more quietly] That makes sense, actually.

* * *

Sam: Why did the alien cross the road?
Susan: I have no idea; why?
Sam: Blorglovgoqorq

"a Ferris wheel you can drive to school"

This movie is from a science-museum trip on Saturday. Aunt Amy joined us for a little while before she had to leave for home. After that, Sam and I wandered around and ended up in an area where kids and parents can build with building blocks called Kid K'nex--21st century erector-set parts, I suppose. Sam really got into it, and together we built the Ferris wheel seen in the movie. And, happily, the museum allows parents to weigh and purchase what they've built, and for a price which certainly beats Toys R Us.

Another enjoyable element to this trip: I--and Sam, I think--learned new things about technology! They had several exhibits about generators, traffic lights, automobile blinkers, etc. I never knew bimetallic strips were so ubiquitous.

Joisey Shore

Spent the past week at the New Jersey shore sharing a house with the Westerville Collinses, and with Amy. Had a great time! Below are a few (?) photos and some highlights:

• Aunt Sue brought up a stack of books which Sam was delighted for her to read to him. (For those of you with an interest in children's lit, they are the Henry & Mudge books and the Poppleton books by Cynthia Rylant.) Aunt Sue even sent two home with him! It was a good book week for Sam--Aunt Amy also sent along a book/puppet, the charming Calm Down, Boris, and a Charlie and Lola puzzle book, I Wonder What Plant I'm Growing. What fun!
• Since this is in no particular order, I'll mention next mini golfing at Pirate Island Mini Golf. What a great course! 18 holes with all sorts of water features and tunnels, all built into a two-storey pirate-ship-themed structure. At the end where you return your ball, it falls into a pinball-like game, giving you a chance to win a new game. We all played Wednesday, and I took Sam back Friday afternoon. At the end of our game, he won a free game, much to his delight! During both of those games we were behind other families with small kids, and since Sam plays relatively quickly, we spent a lot of time lingering right next to them. Sam had a way of insinuating himself into their group, and if it had been close to dinnertime I bet we could have gotten a free dinner out of it for him. :-) At the end of the second game, lo and behold, he won another free game, so he played three games that day! When we played Tuesday Stu got two holes in one and an excellent score. I could match the score even in my subsequent games, but I did get three holes in one. Sam got several holes in two, which he, as only a four-year-old can, referred to each as a "holey two." The owner, a very nice woman, gave Sam eye patches and pirate tattoos since we were such good customers.
  
• One of the things which made this a great vacation is that every day we were able spend hours on the beach, during which Sam would play in the sand or run into surf... or lie with Aunt Amy or be buried in the sand. And let me tell you, no child sleeps better than he who spent the day in the 90-deg heat splashing in the surf!
  
• We saw some wildlife: The day after some blustery, rainy weather there were lots of jellyfish--which didn't keep all of us out! And lots of seaweed--which Stu called swimming in salad. The day after the rainstorm the waves were also very large, shown here. Later that day it calmed down enough for us to go out, at least Stu and I. Those were the first waves which were truly Tim-sized. But earlier in the week I took Sam out into the waves on my shoulders, which he found entertaining until we got deep enough that his legs were getting wet in the waves.
  
• We saw some more wildlife in addition to the jellyfish: One day a horseshoe crab washed up--the next day one of them drifted by on its side. We also dug up or ran across sand crabs of three different sizes. The last was alarmed to receive attention from a group of us walking on the beach. He faced us off boldly, and when Emily made a move toward him, he showed his moxie by lunging toward her as well, claws snapping. Made me miss "crabbing" in Maryland as a kid. Much to Susan's disappointment, no great white sharks came through snacking on seals.
  
• There was the occasional hilarity which ensues when this group of eight at in semi-close quarters. That included at one point spontaneous face-making--which is why you see Uncle Stu with antennas and Sam pretending to be a bug.
  
• One evening Aunt "Saint" Amy watched the kids while Stu and Sue and Susan and I went to dinner. We went to Braca's, where we had shrimp, blackened tuna, and crab cakes. I can't speak for the others, and I am no connoisseur, but the crab cakes were the best I've ever tasted.
• There was a running Scrabble game throughout the week between Susan, Stu and me. I was their foil; Stu early got a 96-point bingo, but Susan persisted and eventually got a word onto two triple-word-score squares. I, for my part, beat my person record for the most vowels in a game.
  
• Cousin Kevin isn't as well suited to the beach, and by and large preferred to stay inside. Anticipating this, Stu and Sue bought him a new video game (Game Cube Mario Party 7), which he happily played all week... and Sam was just as happy watching him, as you can see.
• Other highlights: Susan and Amy and Emily spent a day in NYC, during which Emily went to the center of the universe (the Nintendo Store), Susan did lunch with her agent Molly, and Aunt Amy... well, Aunt Amy enabled the other two and had fun doing so.
• What else? One morning Sam and I did what's becoming a staple of our vacations away from home, and went to the local library. We do this in Colton, NY as well as Aspen, CO. Aspen's library looks like a university collection by comparison to Sea Isle City's. But it was just what we needed, and we had a great time. We couldn't get cards, so we spent two hours reading there. At one point we took a break and Sam wandered the stacks, and shortly returned with a dessert cookbook. This, as it turns out, is one of his favorite things: finding dessert cookbooks and photocopying favorite recipes, all the while nursing fond hopes that one of these will make its way onto our dinner table.

Aunt Amy, Susan, Stu, Sue--what did I miss? Post comments!

Etch-a-Sketching

Two spaceships: one firing bullets, the other bombs, one good, the other evil and striving to be the evilest in the universe.

There's more, but you get the idea...

Four saintly friends

Some photos with captions:

First, I mentioned a while back an exhibit at the Science Museum which models synapses and dendrites. This is it. Sam's in heaven.

Second: Another example of the greatest rule of toy-making: You can't improve on a simple cardboard box.

Third: At the other end of the spectrum, two photos of the new Rainbow playset in our backyard. Rainbow, based coincidentally in Brookings, SD, makes excellent, redwood structures. And they stand behind them: They warranty all pieces against insect damage, so I need merely take a piece in to the local dealer and they will fetch me a new one for free. Not that I will necessarily need to--Ron has tooken excellent care of it.

I hesitate to call it our not because the transaction isn't final, but because it's still very precious to Katie and Sarah, shown here playing with Sam for a little while after dinner. We are in their debt--they have a lot of good memories of it, and wanted it to go to family friends.

Also shown: Ron and Dave, and Dave's colleague/student Greg (strong as an ox). They gave three hours of sabbath time to finish breaking it down, transport it, and rebuild it in our back yard. Such friends are as good as gold. (Thanks also to John, who helped for hours last weekend in the main disassembly phase.)

Finally: Sam on a new trail (to us) at Mendon Ponds.

What a weekend!