Lego Club May 2012

On Saturday we were able to bring the kids to our local Lego club for the first time in several months.  Our club is held at a local library and run by a dad who is a Lego enthusiast.  The club couldn't be simpler, a period of show and tell followed by free play, but the kids love it.  My boys eagerly gathered their latest creations and put a few last minute ones together.  This time Jillian, 3, got in on the act and brought her "contraption".  

What I like about this club is how engaged my kids are.  While they can normally be shy and reserved, they eagerly talk about what they brought and make quick friends with the the other kids.  

Here are some of this month's creations.

Ben's Chicken Racers

Ethan's Castle Scene

Jillian's Contraption

Ethan's Submarine and Underwater Scene

Castle Battle from Above

Chicken Racers

Fun with Rockets and Little Cameras

A while ago, John put together a nifty air-powered rocket launching system.  It makes for a great party activity for the kids.  The rockets are made out of nothing more than construction paper and tape.  With some experimentation, he found that bottle caps make good noses for the rockets. 

One thing that makes it particularly engaging for the kids is the element of danger.  Not so much danger to the kids, but danger to the rockets.  If you don't make your rocket rugged enough, the launch turns it into a cloud of confetti.

On a recent trip to Grandma Penguin's house he brought it out.  I'm not sure whether the big kids or the little ones were having more fun, but here's a clip to show you what sort of shenanigans we got up to while the kids (little) were making their rockets. 

The camera for the rocket is keychain "spy cam" with a micro-SD slot.  I just taped it onto the front end of the rocket.  Good thing the ground was soft that day.  It survived several launches and only really "failed" when I hit a particularly soft patch and the mud squidged right into the hole in front of the lens.  I put failed in quotes because the camera continued to work just fine, I just didn't have a good way handy to clean the lens.  You've got to love solid state devices.  It was surviving some pretty significant G's on landing. 

Should you want to try something like this, be aware that there are lots of flavors of this camera with widely varying oneI used. It actually does have the SD card slot (unlike some).

A Hyundai with a twist of lemon

When you live in a place like Maryland, you forget some of the valuable winter lessons.  For instance, when walking out of Panera, you can't just plop your soda on the roof of the car without first checking that there isn't enough crusty snow up there to make the surface unlevel.  Second, said soda tips over and the top flies off, your first instinct may be to recover the cup and the top, not correct.  You need to get to that wet lemon slice before it rests on the cold metal long enough to be fused on until the next thaw, and you find the vehicle emissions guy giving you strange looks for having citrus on your car. 

I just told him I'd been having rodent problems in the garage and I figure the citric acid would dissolve them.

It didn't really help with the strange looks. 

Two boys, a roll of duct tape and no supervision.

We had a "Daddy and Petie's night of fun" the other night.  At least that's the way he described it to Cluquah.  I'd say we definitely had fun.  It was time to start thinking abotu pajama's and a bedtime story when he suggested one more activity.  That's right, it was his idea, and who was I to refuse. Sorry for the low light levels, but this was a spur of the moment thing.

Parenthood, colors, and early morning showers.

     It's amazing how many emotions parenthood can bring up in a short span of time: annoyance, confusion concern, sloth...  It was five am, and I was in the shower when a small frantic knocking come on the door.  "Daddy! Daddy! I need to get in the bathroom."

     Annoyance.  Not so much for junior's bladder as for the powers-that-be's ridiculous idea of messing with the clocks.  I'm sure he would have made it another hour if we hadn't just set the clocks back recently.  And why call it "Daylight Savings Time" when it's during the time of year that we have more daylight than we can possible spend?  Are we really saving it for the winter months?  Of course not, but that's a rant for another day.

     I reached out and turned the knob and PP scampered in.  The annoyance was short lived because he has a new set of footy PJ's that are adorable on him.  Unfortunately, getting in and out of them is an acquired skill.   He managed to get out on his own (mostly, the feet where still on), but I knew getting in would be too much for him.

     Confusion:  As he scampered around the partition to the toilet, he just had one comment for me "My octopuses don't like cupcakes."  

     "What?"  No answer.  It must have been some residual image from a dream.  I really wish I could see his dreams sometimes. 

     Sloth:  During the chilly months, we keep the house a bit on the cold side.  At night the thermostat drops to 55 degrees, which means that stepping out of my early morning showers is a downright frigid experience.  It takes an act of iron will to move from the warm cocoon and into the cold, cruel world outside.  The experience is made even more extreme by the fact that the house's sole thermostat is downstairs and the rather peculiar layout of our house means the upstairs bathroom has an interior door leading to the uninsulated attic.   Tightening up both the door and the attic are on my todo list for next year (this year's energy rebate went to a new roof), but in the mean time I'm showering in the coldest room in the house.

     Well, on this morning, I found myself with an excuse to prolong my blessed ablutions.  I'd finished with soap and was about to turn the shampoo when PP arrived.  I couldn't start shampooing if he was going to need help, could I?  The image of me leaning out, frothing and half blind didn't seem like a good idea.   Instead, I just basked as the room got steamer and steamer. 

     After a few minutes, he shuffled around the corner, his pull-up mostly in place, but his PJs trailing out behind him like a comet's tail.  Doing my best not to drip, I helped him on with the arms and zipped him up.  I was planing to send him right back to bed, but he had a question for me first.  "Daddy, why can't you tell purple from blue?"

     Concerned:  Uh oh.  Is the the first clue to a form of color blindness?  After all, I've suspected for a while that I was "red nearsighted" .  At least that's my explanation for nearly failing genetics lab.  What the hell do they mean red-eye vs. scarlet-eye?  Red and scarlet are just two names for the same color, aren't they?  I think I just found myself going "red,red,red,scarlet,red,red,red,scarlet."

     "Do you mean when it's dark?" I asked.  It seemed appropriate, as the sun was nowhere near up.  Maybe he'd seen something in the bedroom that had triggered the question, although 5am was hardly the time to be pulled into a discussion of the relative sensitivity of rods and cones.   

     "Yeah, when they're light, it's ok, but when they're dark it's hard to tell them apart."  

     Ok.  Now it makes sense, Knowing that 5am while standing is the shower is not a time to get pulled into a discussion of rods and cones, I settled for "Yeah, it's hard to tell colors apart when it's dark."  That seemed to be enough, and he scampered off to cuddle with Cluquah for a while longer.  I finished quickly shampooed and stepped out of the shower.  It wasn't nearly as bad as usual, as I couldn't see across the bathroom for all the steam.  

     Of course, the payback came the next day when I needed to get into the attic found the door had swollen shut.  Damn.