Hand Me Downs

Anyone who has seen a picture of Tai in the past 18 months or so is probably familiar with his Favorite Shirt. When he first got it, it was much to big for him, but he wore it sans pants and called it his Fancy Dress. Now it's getting a tad small and, as Tai will tell you, it hurts his ears when we pull it over his head. He's worn it as frequently as possible, year-round, and it's been through the wash so many times the colors are now faded. We've been warning him that it's getting small and he won't be able to go on wearing it forever.

In addition to the Favorite Shirt, Tai is also partial to some of his pajamas. A kid after my own heart, he really enjoys staying in his PJs all day on the weekends and we both have a hard time resisting PJs on sale at Target or Costco. As a result, he's received four new pairs of PJs in the past month or so (sizes 3 and 4T). His PJ drawer was beginning to overflow.

So the other day, when Tai was busy playing downstairs, I went through his drawer and pulled out all the size 2T PJs and decided they now belong to Quynh. (Interestingly enough, they went right into her drawer.....no need to wait until she grows into them. She's already there.)

It occurred to me that I should inform Tai of what I had done before he saw her wearing some of her "new" PJs. I was worried that might cause a melt down along the lines of "hey, those are MY dinosaur pajamas!!" So the other morning at breakfast I showed him a big pile of pajamas and explained that they were getting too small for him so I decided to give them to Quynh.

"All of those?" he asked.

"Yes" I replied and held up each pair so he could see exactly which PJs were being handed down.

"OK. I don't mind that," he informed me.

I started to walk away from the breakfast table, to deposit the PJs in Quynh's room, and he called out, "Oh! Mama! Don't forget to also give Quynhhy my Favorite Shirt because it's getting too small. It hurts my ears."

Love that boy of mine. So, those of you who check out the picasa albums of my kids will soon be spying a whole new generation of Favorite Shirt photos, featuring Quynh. Lucky you.

Talking Dinos

On our recent tour of upstate New York, we happened upon the Petrified Creatures Museum of Natural History. It's just a tad different from the other Museum of Natural History we visited in Manhattan a few months back.

In fact, I'd say "museum" is really being generous. It's essentially someone's house. That someone also happens to be a licensed Real Estate Agent -- in case you want to kill two birds with one stone.

The first room you enter is the "gift shop" and it smells like Old People. It has a dark, dingy appearance that makes you feel like you must be the first patron in quite some time and that the gifts for sale have been sitting there a very very long time.

After you fork over $9 per adult, the woman (Stella, I assume?) lets you into her Backyard Museum. This essentially consists of three major areas:

(1) displays of actual Petrified Creatures under wooden shelters. The displays are narrated by a very loud recording that you activate by ringing a doorbell. The "creatures" included trilobites, a horseshoe crab shell, petrified wood, and fern imprints on rock. Fossils indeed, but still not very exciting.

(2) large (though not actual size and not to scale with regard to each other) plaster dinosaurs painted in array of colors (hot pink, turquoise, bright yellow, etc). Each dino had a mailbox painted to match and inside the box was.....a doorbell! When you press the doorbell the dino "talks" to you. Tai didn't notice, but 4 of the 5 dinos had Stella's voice. What he did notice was that the T-rex (pictured below) threatened to eat him and the stegosaurus said that she was not very smart. Poor thing has low self-esteem.

(3) An area in which you could dig for real fossils. Stella even said that if we'd forgotten our digging tools (which we had, shucks!) we could borrow some of hers. We skipped this part in favor of heading back to the car and continuing our journey west.

Oh, and at the very end of the museum path she had a display about minerals that included rectangular slabs of marble, clearly purchased at Home Depot, and a large brown rock with a sign indicating that it was a meteorite. Tai and I thought it just looked like a rock. Makes me wonder if we could open a Meteorite Museum in our backyard....

I have to give her credit actually. She obviously found some cool stuff in her backyard and turned it into a source of income. Hell, I think it was worth the money just for the Unusual Experience and Blog Fodder.

Cow Parade

This past weekend we trekked up to Brattleboro, Vermont for the Strolling of the Heifers. The parade starts at 10am sharp and we were warned to get there very early to find parking and a good viewing spot. Taking this warning very seriously, we found ourselves in downtown Brattleboro at 8:45am. (This is the part where you are impressed.) Some days I can't even get to the kids' daycare by 8:45am, but last Saturday we were all up, dressed, and loaded into the car by about 7:40am. Of course, three of us had not eaten breakfast yet.

Tai was thrilled to eat breakfast in the car for the first time ever. In fact, Friday night he had much difficulty falling asleep and one of the several times he emerged from his room he told me, "I'm so excited for the Strolling of the Heifers....and to eat breakfast in the car!"

We met up with two of Tai's friends from school and all enjoyed a fantastic parade together. The highlight, of course, was the many cows. But also of note were the baby cows (which Quynh took one look at and signed "dog!"), baby goats, a horse dressed up as a cow, marching bands, and tractors. It was the perfect parade for our animal-and-music-and-farm-equipment-loving boy.

Quynh also enjoyed herself, though it was very difficult to keep her from joining the parade. She desperately wanted to follow the cows down the street and couldn't understand how a fun event like a parade could possibly require so much sitting still.

Vermont is a fun little state and I think we saw some excellent examples of its quirkiness. For instance, there were the organic farm folks carrying signs in the shapes of giant vegetables emblazoned with messages about organic food, healthy eating, sustainable living, etc. And, logically, the huge purple eggplant sign that said, "end racism."

Then there was the Asian Cultural Society comprised of several white men and three mail order brides. 'Nuff said.

The group that tugged at my heartstrings was the middle school marching band. I don't know much about music but even I could tell that they were pretty bad. In an adorable way. And they were all out of step, including the drum line. I didn't even know it was possible to play the drums and be out of step.

After the parade we had an early lunch at a nearly empty restaurant where we let three toddlers and Quynh run wild on the deck. The young waitress looked a little bewildered at the chaos, but handled it fairly well. When a childless couple showed up, we tried (feebly) to reign our children in, but it was no use. That couple lasted about 2.5 minutes before decided they'd prefer to dine inside.

If only Tai had napped on the way home (or after arriving home) the day would have been a roaring success. But we did all have a fantastic time and it was worth the long drive early on a Saturday morning. We'll totally go back next year (we just may need to find a different restaurant).

Playing Hookie

Tomorrow my entire family is playing hookie from work and school to drive to scenic Lawrence, Massachusetts.

On purpose.

An old college friend of ours now owns a restaurant in Lawrence, so a bunch of us are all converging on his place for a little Lunch Reunion. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, letting our kids goof off together, and eating some tasty sandwiches. Minh's hoping to being offered the chance to open a franchise in Western Mass. Because Northampton needs another restaurant.