Flight to the Sun!!!

Yessir, the day approachth! Soon, oh so soon, we will be winging our way to the Islands. Tom, bless his soul, has even agreed to leave behind his work cell and computer and to actually make this a vacation -- the first one that he will have had since starting work at Boeing.

Meanwhile, until that time, life goes on. And there are developments:

Jason has fallen in love with an older girl in his class, Michaela. She is a lovely girl and has a brother Jason's age, Cobin, also in the class. She is amazing, actually -- seems to know all the right things to say. She laughs at Jason's jokes, tells him that he is funny, and asks to hear more. And yesterday... as we were leaving the Dojang, he leaned in against me and said in a bare whisper, cheeks pinkening, 'Michaela hugged me. We really ARE friends!' Oh child. Part of me aches for him. Part of me smiles. The other morning, he woke up all smiles and informed me that he'd had no bad dreams, only good ones because "I dreamed of Michaela." Sigh.

Now when I told my mother all this, she commented that 'Well, I guess we know who the lover is in your family.' Mr. Big Ears heard this, of course, and immediately announced 'HEY! I am a lover too! I love ALL pretty girls!' Grin. Yep, that'd be Xander. The man who does NOT discriminate about girls/women; he just loves 'em. So that led into a discussion of that Italian fellow, Casanova. I explained to Mom that Casanova had gotten a lot of bad press, mainly from husbands. His abiding fault, it turns out, was his inability to allow women to be abused, so he was constantly 'rescuing' them from abusive situations -- and, of course, that got around and women began seeking him out. Puts a whole different spin on the 'seducer', does it not? At any rate, I have no difficulty whatsoever, seeing my youngest following a similar path. He does, in fact, like women -- of all ages and sizes and colors and shapes. Even as a wee bit, he smiled preferentially at women whereas Jason just smiled at everyone.

Now, beyond their curious social developments, people may wonder how school is going -- indeed, I actually had a complete stranger ask if I didn't think that Xander was suffering by NOT being in preschool. Nope. As I answered the questioner, Xander learns what Jason learns. Last night, for example, he was cogitating on math: 1+1= 2, Mommy! he said and 1+2 =3! Yes, I agreed, and 1+2+3=6! He thought about that a moment and announced, in tones of deep satisfaction 'I am a MATHEMATICIAN!' Grin. Why all this excitement? Well, last night, as one of our bedtime books, we read 'Mathematicians are People Too', a collection of short biographies of famous mathematicians. We read about Thales -- and then I stopped. Jason wanted to continue, of course. He always does. So I promised to read more today. But apparently Thales was enough to spark Xander's ambition yet again. Now he is interested in being a Mathematician!

Similarly, I gave Jason a book to read called 'The Grapes of Math' -- it is a series of verbal Math riddles. Jason had a blast. The riddles require real thinking -- and the developing of methods for resolving the riddles, including multiplication. Jason now wants to 'do the math' in any book we read. Gotta love it. Most kids hate word problems. After I demonstrated to Jason how he could translate the words into equations, he became fascinated and spent a good morning working them out.

On other notes: Jason is creating a new Legos universe and he already has quite a backstory worked out:
Space Explorers is the name of his new Universe. The characters are Captain Pixel, First Mate Bits, Engineer Axle, Navigator Johnnie, Doctor Knowitall and Communications engineer Hullothere (an android). There is a crew of 1000 souls, including a monsterous creature created by Xander who is the designated scout (he is too big to fit on the main ship so he has his own)

The story: Captain Pixel and his crew are sent off in a hurry, on a refitted ship, to melt Mar's polar ice-caps. The water is needed to terraform the planet and there is some urgency in the operation. Unfortunately, the ship that they are given was originally created for a vastly different purpose and there is, on the command console, a special button -- a warp button -- that should never be used. Through some set of unspecified circumstances, the Captain accidentally HITS the warp button and the ship is thrown two MILLION lightyears away, directly into the path of a meteor shower. As might be expected, the ship is badly damaged and now is seeking food, fuel and repair materials in order to get home.

Jason has already created the mini figs for the the story and is working on the ship. Xander is creating the backdrop. I think I shall see if I can get Jason to illustrate his story as well as build it. It would make an interesting comix.

What is truly impressive to me is the fact that, as far as I know, this idea just came into his head. He announced to me yesterday morning that he wanted to create a 'new universe.' I said 'okay, tell me about it' and began asking him questions to help focus his thoughts. Within moments, he had laid out the bones of his ideas (as indicated above) and was happily building away. Wish I had the same ability!

Finally, after legos and math, we watched the Imax film "Space Station" and the boys decided that, in addition to being Paleontologists and archeologists, they are going to become astronauts. This led, of course, to a serious discussion as to what skills astronauts have/require and that in turn, led to a discussion about what the boys would need to do in order to be able to try to become astronauts. As I told Tom later that day, even if they don't become astronauts ('It is an extremely dangerous job' Tom muttered darkly), the skill sets that astronauts are required to have would stand the boys in good stead. So... we will see where this ends up. Their interests expand geometrically these days!

Last but not least, Xander has decided that he is in love with the Dentist's office. For one thing, they have a camera that takes pictures of your whole face -- and Xander got to see the X-rays of Jason's teeth (Teeth like rocks, according to the Dentist). Xander was in ecstacies. And then there were all the cool tools and a TV screen that can be moved all over... he can hardly wait for HIS appointment. Tom laughed when I told him and said 'I wonder how many times X-rays of teeth have enticed little boys into going willingly to the Dentist!' Don't know but it seems to have worked for Xander!

Paleontology Game

It is amazing what the boys can conceive. As you may be aware, they are both in love with Dinosaurs and fossils. Not a surprise. Most little boys love Dinos. But these two take it to the next step. Jason, having read a book about 'the serious game of Paleontology' decided that he wanted to create such a game. And yesterday we worked on it. He has decided to call it 'Paleontology: The Final Frontier.' It is a combination of monopoly and trivial pursuit meets paleontology. We are working to put it together and then he plans to test drive it on his scout troop. I have told him that if it does well, I will help him try to market it. Grin. Another lesson to learn for both of us if that happens! At any rate, it is a fun project and it should be interesting to see how it finally turns out.

Xander, meanwhile, continues with his 'Creature' Creations. We found a big bag of googley eyes at the Childrens' Learning Store the other day and bought it. He immediately wanted to come home and make boy and girl creatures. What is the difference between boys and girls? Girls have eye brows! Ummm... I have decided, as the creatures are multiplying at an enormous rate -- and they really are very cute -- that I shall have to start a 'creature' website for Xander, one where he can 'store' his creations in virtual space and see them whenever he wishes. Of course, I am well aware of where that might lead. Already his older brother wants to learn computer programming so that he can create computer games of his own. Xander will not be long behind. Sigh. So now I need to learn to teach computer programming! Luckily there is an MIT program taht offers a free basic computer programming language and training. The reviews are all good so again, what a chance to do something new!

Jason has also decided that he is going to study the human body and to learn how to 'fix it'. He is vitally aware of all those whom he loves who have serious illnesses and conditions and, being his father's son, is absolutely bound and determined to do something about it. Truth is, given his ability to focus, I suspect that if he does decide to pursue this, he will succeed. He and Xander share the ability to immerse themselves in their areas of interest. I am finding it easier and easier to understand how Alexander the Great conquered his world... LOL.