Tadpole

Look ma! No floaties!

Want some candy?

I'm old. I'm married.

I've learned to enjoy the simple pleasures in life...

Eye candy.

Free and yummy.

Oh...um...and a great swim teacher.

In Automotive History

1863 - Henry Ford, Automobile manufacturer, is born (d. 1947)

1985 - Saturn announces first plant

1990 - The first Saturn automobile rolls off the assembly line.

2003 - In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.

2003 – Zorro is born.

Easy come

You can demolish a house and give it an Extreme Makeover but stupid is as stupid does. And that's all I have to say about that.

We love the Oldies

Old Toons
You know how one thing leads to another? Well, we started off the morning doing "paperwork." Z did a dot-to-dot of Dino from the Flintstones. Of course he had no clue who the Flintstones were much less Dino... Thank goodness for YouTube!

Soon we found ourselves in front of the screen watching the intro to 2 Flintstones episodes. Which made me think. How cool are the Flintstones to a 4 going on 5 (in one day!) year old kid! It's got dinosaurs, construction, foot pedaled cars and one really strong kid that likes to bam.

The right bar on the screen gave me more ideas.

I clicked on shows I remembered: Speed Buggy, Speed Racer, Captain Caveman, and the Jetson's. Anyone remember these gems? I watched his face light up as he watched George jet around in space, the awe when his vehicle turned into a briefcase.

Now, I realize the content may not be appropriate for all the little ones. Hey, that's what parents are for! But, the one thing the old toons offer are stimulating imagination and lots of laughs. And, they fit the interest of little boys.

It would be nice to see these in reruns... on regular television. I think kids get enough of the real world.

Old Tunes
I introduced my son to songs from the past. He has latched on to one with the intensity of a croc in a death roll. He calls it "Peter of the Pack."

He insisted it was "Peter" and not "Leader."

Catchy tune, cool motorcycle engine roars, and a terrible crash. What's not to love?!

How about the repeat function on your car cd? Thank goodness for short car rides!

Yesterday I found a tape cassette of the song so he could listen to it in his room on his Fisher Price cassette player. Just before bed, he began to sing along for the first time. I can't begin to tell you how cute it is to see him singing

"My folks were always putting him down (down down)

They said he came from the wrong side of town

(Whatcha mean when you say that he came from the wrong side of
town?)

They told me he was bad

But I knew he was sad

That's why I fell for the leader of the pack."

Sometimes men are from Venus

My husband is from Mars. At least that far out there. I strongly suspect he is from a plutoid. Most times he baffles me and we've gotten into some weird power struggles. But every once in a while, I see a glimmer of hope.

This weekend, he said the magic words. You know, those words, the kind that gets a girl's heart racing and the blood pumping. I'm starting to think, maybe he does understand me a little.

Guys, try this one:

"Do you want to go to Michaels?"

By the way, this only works if you've ever seen your significant other knit, crochet, hot glue, stamp, bake or sew.

Three Guesses

Guess what my husband did this weekend?
Guess what I did after?
Guess who had the most fun?

Answers to these questions can be found below:

We have a new toilet.

Lots of boxes

View from rooftop

The first visitor (or peeping pup)

The King and boxes for the throne equals his new castle.

Moms rock!

Adventures in San Pedro

There's a lot to see and do. You just need to search and make time.

We finally went to San Pedro. Our first stop was Ports 'O Call where we could walk along and look at boats as well as visit the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and see the Fire Boat #2. So much great history and learning to be found here. I loved it! I had two wishes:
One: The Trolley running on a Thursday. (I was a day early!)
Two: Z would stop asking to go to a car museum (we came to look at boats, dern it!)

This is a bird I saw that I thought was cool. I found out from people at the Aquarium that it was an adult Black Crowned Night Heron.

And things that Z found really cool are things that didn't have admission prices... like watching the construction crew and feeding the sea birds.

The Hunt

Z wanted to check out crayola.com. I found this scavenger hunt.

I thought it would be fun. And it was.

We found them all as I got the errands done.

My main stops were Trader Joe's and Vons and everywhere in between.

Here are a few images of what we found.

something red

a bench

a feather

a blue string

This was a great way to keep Z entertained. Make your own scavenger hunt page, work on some reading or counting skills, and above all, have fun.

Saturday and Monday

Made Dune Buggy at Lowe's

Ran into Sue and her zoo

high school science

entomology, bilateral symmetry, segmented arthropods

are words I learned

silk worms, cocoons and moths

all very cool

If you build it...They will too!

On Tuesday we went to Santa Ana to visit the Discovery Science Center.

Bob was there.

It was a great exhibit, encouraging imagination and creativity. The kids loved "building." They could fix pipes, construct a rock wall, push a wheelbarrow, and build a wooden wall.

Aside from Bob, they had tons of cool science displays that had adults and children enthralled. There was a green screen and costumes so you could see yourself on television swimming with dolphins. You could sit in a shake shack and experience an earthquake. Wind tunnels, smoke, sound... and let's not forget the dinosaurs. Ahh, the wonders of learning and discovery...

But I have to say, one of my favorites was the Animal Grossology exhibit. Scents, parasites, poop and history... all the makings for good entertainment in my book. They don't call me "Cliffette" for nothing, ya know?

Add one to the "zorro-isms"

We decided a hop in the pool would be fun so we changed our clothes. I realized Z forgot about the differences between boys and girls when he said, “Mom! Where’s your penis?!”

I should have said it fell off when I was not listening to my mom.

4th of July

Patches was amazing yesterday. The topic was Independence Day. We learned a little about why we celebrate the 4th of July and about colonial life. We made dolls from corn husk with hair of corn silk.

I learned about hornbooks. This description is an excerpt from the Blackwell Museum:

Paper was pretty expensive once and hornbooks were made so children could learn to read without using a lot of paper. A hornbook was usually a small, wooden paddle with just one sheet of paper glued to it. But because that paper was so expensive, parents and teachers wanted to protect it. So they covered the paper with a very thin piece of cow's horn. The piece of cow's horn was so thin, you could see right through it. That's why these odd books were called "hornbooks."

We made our own version of a hornbook that could be used with a dry erase marker.

The kids colored their American Flags and marched to some of our nations tunes. Some were equiped with musical instruments, and the parents were serenaded with a cacophony of drums, xylophones, and bells.

What a great start to America's birthday!

The Heart of the Mater

Yesterday as we stood in the parking lot, Z noticed a discarded paper bag rolling on the asphalt. He turned to me and said, "Mom, I want to help the environment." He wanted to pick up the trash that littered the ground.

Today we are going to the beach to do just that.

He amazes me.