Bargaining Out of Bed

A few weeks ago, Sam discovered that even though we put him in bed, he doesn't have to stay.

While that seems a small realization, the result was an hour of us silently putting Sam back into his bed and losing all time to ourselves every night. So Joy remembered something her Mom does with her students and told Sam that every night he had two passes to get out of bed and after that, he had to stay put.

We knew we were in trouble when he started planning his passes before bed each night.

Last week, he got out of bed so many times, that I told him on Wednesday that he had used all of his passes for the week. He wanted to know when he got new passes. I told him Sunday. He asked when Sunday was. I told him it was the day we went to church.

Fast forward to tonight. Joy's putting Sam to bed, and Sam announces that since it was Sunday he has new passes and follows the statement with his first demand: "I need a drink of water for my first pass." Dutifully, Joy goes and gets him a drink. Then he proclaims, "I will come and get you for my second pass. Go away, Mama." Joy goes and does some of her getting ready for bed routine and then hears Sam padding down the hall to get her. When she goes back into his room she reminds him, "Sam, you're out of passes now."

Sam pauses, thinks a moment, then shouts, "Look! I found some passes hiding here under the covers!" Joy gently tells him that passes don't work that way, you can't just find them. Undeterred, Sam continues, "and I found some popcorn and a marshmallow. I'll feed you Mama." Joy, trying to keep from laughing, mumbles "Thanks" and something about how she was hungry. Sam follows up by saying, "and I found some money! Here you go!"

At this point Joy has to leave to keep from cracking up at all the things Sam is "finding." She comes downstairs to tell me the tale, and Sam is hot on her heels, offering more pretend money to her. Only three and a half, and he's already figured out you can buy your way out of most any situation. And since he's using pretend money to do it, he obviously has a future on Wall Street.

New Review - David Arnold's Quantum of Solace

In my film music class last night, we were discussing how music can work to tell us new or deeper things about the characters we see on screen. One of my examples was John Barry's score for Goldfinger, a score often dismissed as "suited to the slick, hard-edge, dehumanized nature of those films."

I find the score a fascinating one because Barry conflates Bond's theme with that of Goldfinger's, in essence showing that both of them are cold, calculating, and deal in death. In other words, the music makes a more complicated figure out of Bond than we usual think.

This notion of using the Bond theme to dig at untold dimensions in the character began with Barry, but I find David Arnold keeping the tradition alive in his scores for the new Bond movies. I just reviewed Quantum of Solace and found new ways in which the Bond character is developed through the music. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Today the Stairs, Tomorrow the World

Noah is now fully conversant in the tactics of crawling. So much so that he now strains to be down whenever he's awake. (unless Sam is around because Sam views a Noah on the ground as a Noah who wants to tussle) I thought, then, you deserved a gratuitous Noah crawling picture:
The problem with his great crawling ability is that he's discovered and is determined to conquer the barrier known as the stairs. Last Sunday morning when we were getting ready for church, he scooted out of the bathroom and instead of following his usual heat-seeking missile practice to Sam's room, he went straight towards and straight down the stairs. We gasped, time slowed, and Noah bounced. Our pediatrician friend at church pronounced him fine, and since then he's elected to go at the stairs from the bottom. So far, he can get up on the bottom stair just fine but then slides back down. It won't be long until he's all the way up.

I'm voting for a cage about right now.

Oh, Those Fiesty Librarians

This morning, I read an article in the Kansas City Star about the impending Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act which goes into effect on February 10. The act requires testing of all children's products for lead, including books.

That's right, libraries would be responsible for making sure their children's books do not contain lead, and most don't have the resources available to test books. As a result, libraries may have to pull children's books from their shelves unless the Consumer Product Safety Commission exempts them.

My favorite part of the entire article pointed to the reason this story was even on the front page of the newspaper. When the paper interviewed Crosby Kemper III, CEO of Kansas City Public Libraries, about the reaction to the law, he remarked:

"Librarians turn out to be a pretty feisty group."

Makes me think he'd never been around librarians before. I've known that since I was six years old.

Might As Well Admit it He's Addicted to Thomas

With the "train tracks of peace," you might get the idea that my son is slightly addicted to Thomas.

You have no idea.

Every Monday, Sam goes to Parents Day Out. And every Monday afternoon, he returns home with a sheet detailing what and how he did that day. Usually the messages are benign: "Sam had a good day today," or "Sam enjoyed playing outside on the slide today." Monday's message? "We're trying to help Sam play with things other than the train table." That's right, he's so single minded about Thomas that even his teachers who seem him once a week want to help him learn to play with other toys.

Not to say that Sam only plays with trains. He really doesn't. He has cars and trucks, blocks and legos, books and musical instruments that he plays with all the time. They just don't see the every day play of Thomas.

Just an example of our Thomas attraction: This past week, Sam has taken to calling me Edward and wants to be called Henry and for most of this week has chosen to wear a green shirt as a result. So I'll come home in the evenings not to "Dad's home," but instead, "Edward, I love you!" I'm still not sure what to make of that one.

In any case, Sam does have a small Thomas thing going right now. In fact, I caught this picture of him the other night that pretty much sums up our life right now:That's right. That's Sam in the dark looking at his Thomas catalog by the light of a Thomas flashlight. It doesn't get much more Thomas crazy than that.

Train Tracks of Peace

In church on Sunday, our pastor preached on peace. Turns out that she and other leaders in the denomination have been invited to Rome, Italy in a few weeks to attend a conference dealing with the theological dimensions of peace. As part of her presentation, she wanted to take pictures draw by the children in our church that represented what peace meant to them. So, for the children's story, Sam's Sunday School teacher read a book on peace and then marched all the kids upstairs to draw their pictures.

During the offering, the children marched back in with their drawings to present them to the church and to God. When Joy and I saw Sam march in with a Thomas train in his hands we knew what might be up and when we glimpsed his picture (which featured what were certainly a set of rails), Joy leaned over to me and whispered, "Looks like Sam drew the train tracks of peace."

We didn't know the half of it.

During the luncheon that followed church, all the pictures were on display, so we went by to peruse them. There was the five-year-old's tree where she went to read and watch the clouds, there was the four-year-old's new puppy. There was the forcefield protecting the intergalactic spaceship, and there was the garbage truck. Yes, in addition to drawing the Thomas the Train of peace, Sam drew the garbage truck of peace as well.

I suppose his drawing has a certain logic. A world where garbage is always picked up is certainly a world at peace. But I think Sam just wanted to draw a big garbage truck and so he did. an next month, the picture will be hanging in Rome.

It's a better debut than any of my pictures ever had.

Christmas Photos - Finally

At long last I've gotten the photos from the past month off my camera and onto my new external hard drive (I knew I'd eventually get around to changing my computer with all the new toys I got for it). So here is Christmas 2008. Click on the picture to enjoy the set!