Mesopotamian feast

Spring visited today. Temperatures reached almost seventy degrees and the sun was out for much of the day. Even after a winter as weak as the one we just had, a day like today still makes me long for the freshness of spring. Along with the warmer weather, another cold is visiting our house, complete with snuffles and the glassy-eyed stares of the slightly infirm. We've been fortunate on the illness front, though, so we won't begrudge the season a few snuffles and we're trudging right along.

A couple of days ago I read My Father's Dragon to Calvin. It's a short book, and only took about three days of bedtime reading to get through it, but he was so impatient for the next two books that he read them on his own yesterday, and read them again this morning. Today he declared a strong desire for a Boris the Dragon, and he's sure this is something I can produce with fabric and a sewing machine. Unfortunately my ability is limited to items of two dimensions only. A stuffed dragon may be beyond my skill.

We have swimming lessons on Wednesdays and I figured that the warm, moist pool would be good for snuffles, and since he wasn't coughing or sneezing, and the chlorine to boot, we kept to our obligation. Lunch with Gram and Grampa after, and a romp in the sunlit park. As my father pushed him in the what Calvin calls the "big comfortable swing", Calvin closed his eyes and actually rested. He swore, again and again, that he was busy dreaming of his dragon, but I think he was actually tired. Colds will do that.

A day like today just calls for outside play. Calvin turned our driveway into a map of Boris the Dragon's world, and our neighbors came over to meet Iris. The only thing less than perfect about today, then, was our dinner, and that was something I'd expected. As we explore the world around us we like to try ethnic recipes, and being in ancient Mesopotamia right now, it was there that we ate. Tough beef with about a million different kinds of onion (shallots, scallions, chives, garlic, leeks, and white cooking onions) in the slow cooker (since I don't have an ancient stone fire pit), turnips stewed in beef broth (it called for blood, but I couldn't find that) with more onions, and some couscous I threw in on the side.

We had a good time researching the menu, making a shopping list, collecting the ingredients, and cooking the meal, and it was fun, edible even, but not at all thrilling. Jon and I tried two ancient brew beers with dinner, but even those didn't help much. We had dates and apples for dessert, and we're glad we tried it out, but thankfully there aren't many leftovers.

Monday—Ziggurat meets Mayan temple

Over the weekend Calvin attended a program at the library about healthy eating and living. It was presented by UofM's Natural History Museum, but had been poorly advertised and only one other kid showed up. The truth is, if we hadn't already been at the library for the book sale, we wouldn't have known about it either. As it turned out, Calvin had a great time at the program while I worked the book sale, and he came home with four different starter plants that he planted himself.

So Monday started with a little watering.

In addition to chocolate cherry tomatoes, ladybug tomatoes, green beans, and carrots, Calvin came home with a stuffed red blood cell that he won in a game of Bingo. He named him Mr. Red Blood Cell, of course. I had no idea such a toy existed, but apparently there is a whole line of these things, from brain cells to the black plague, so after breakfast this morning we did a little jogging around the Giant Microbes site (just watch out for the venereals).

Then a little Lego play with Mr. Red Blood Cell and the Ziggurat he and his dad built yesterday.

Ziggurat, meet Mayan temple.

Mayan temple, meet Ziggurat.

There was some nomadic hunter gatherer play, obviously set in the time before farming but after domestication of wild animals. Either that or this nomadic hunter is in serious danger.

Calvin did some cut paper art, and we read all our library books over again—lots of great story books about the evolution of farming, technology, and eventually civilizations. While I was on the treadmill he read The Enormous Egg, and while I was showering he watched a few Schoolhouse Rock videos.

I had a dentist appointment this afternoon (possibly my least favorite thing) while Calvin got some Gram and Grampa time. Then the store, a walk with Iris, tea with tangrams.

And a piano lesson for everyone.

MRI

This morning found us trying something entirely new on the experience front—we were up early, sans breakfast, and traipsing over to Mott Children's Hospital so Calvin could have an MRI. Kids Calvin's age are usually given an MRI under general anesthesia, and it was that and not the procedure itself that had us skipping breakfast and spending umpteen hours at the hospital. The brand new Mott hospital is bright and clean and entertaining—a perpetual marble machine, a toy MRI machine on the anesthesia ward—but with the same great doctors, nurses, and staff they've always had. In fact, our fantastic pediatric anesthesiologist was rather taken with Calvin. She believed that he was mature enough to handle the MRI without the general anesthesia and was willing to give it a go. It worked.

No general anesthesia meant that we walked out of the hospital about ten minutes after the MRI was finished and went straight out for celebration pancakes. And it meant he wasn't groggy and had lots of energy, so we came home and played with dogs, and snow, and Legos, and umbrellas. And it meant that Jon and I were really, really, relieved. Time to breath easy again. And that all adds up to a great, great day.

It's a new dryer invention...he's drying Blanket

Iris (all spots, grace, and energy)

Ollie (cow ears)

Dressing the snowman!

And I call this "quiet moment with journal and dog"

Getting back to crafty

It's been a while, so after a few math sheets, some reading time, and a variety of errands, we decided to visit our craft supplies again. Calvin had a particular project in mind, one that he'd seen in a library book on the Aztecs (and you see us making our way through the classical American civilizations). With cardboard, construction paper, fake feathers, floss, one bamboo pole, scissors, tape (of various types), and glue (of various types), we constructed a fan thingy. Strangely the book does not go into any detail about what the fan thingy was for, it just suggested that we make one and Calvin thought that was a good idea. Since this was our first meeting with the Aztecs I'm hoping some of the other books we haven't yet read will tell us more.

Prince and the pea

Is this our own version of a fairy tale? Prince and the pea? How about double decker dogs? Or maybe a double-dog sandwich? Really it is a sign of things to come. A new dog bed comes with...more on that later.