Mud Puddle Round Up
I have a hard time wrapping my head (and heart) around the notion that he is almost nine. And wears size 10 clothes and size 5 shoes. And is exactly 10 inches shorter than me. I understand that the life that you see in the rearview seems like it went by at 100 mph but seriously, he was just little, he was just wearing a bib and cutting teeth. I am so afraid the next nine years are going to speed by just as fast. So I am holding on for dear life and trying to convince him being a kid is way more fun than being a grown up.
He got his braces off (did I mention that?) and his teeth look FABULOUS. He has to wear his retainer 24/7 for another week or so and then hopefully just at night. The first day with the retainer was a challenge. It made his mouth create extra amounts of spit. Which was, well gross. And made him uncomfortable for 12 hours. He was whiny and his teeth hurt and he couldn’t eat with the retainer in. Luckily Day 2 was pretty much back to the MP status quo and he toughed it out.
As a treat for making it through his time behind bars (on his teeth) I bought him what some might consider an odd present. So, upfront let me explain, he is obsessed with Legos. And not just any Legos, it is a special architecture series he happens to love. He built the Seattle Space Needle and Empire State building in 10 minutes (the box says something about being for kids over 10, um, no.) and he had his eye on the prize: the 800+ piece Lego reproduction of the Frank Lloyd Wright house Falling Water. The box states it is for someone 16 or over. But by God he wanted it. And was going to save his money to get it. But in the meantime he got his braces off and I thought it would be a good distraction from the retainer. And it was. Now, I will capitulate to the fact that I helped out in a very small way. He did 99% of the work. I just organized the pieces into 10 different bowls for easier sorting and helped out twice when he needed a break. But he built it and holy crap, it is amazing if not slightly unstable when moved.
Now I know who Frank Lloyd Wright is and why he is famous and why the house is famous. But the MP is eight. What kind of crap does he give about some dead guy who designed really weird houses? A big one apparently because it is all we talked about for a month. Where was Falling Water? Does anyone live there? How do you get there? What other houses/buildings did he design? Where did he live? How long did each one take him? Seriously, when he writes the definitive FLW biography, it better be dedicated to me. The good news is, one of his houses is in NH so we can go see it. And I am totally on board with that after what I am going to tell you about next.
The MP had an end of year project at school to write about an oceanic sea creature. After some brainstorming with my dad he decided he was going to write about the Horseshoe Crab. Good choice as it is native to the waters off the New Hampshire coast. Basically we kicked butt on that presentation research. I took books out of the library, my dad sent him an article about Horseshoe Crab research at UNH. We googled, and wikipedia’ed and basically could tell you what ever the hell you want to know about a horseshoe crab. I am nothing if not thorough. I went online and found out that they live in Great Bay, and there is a Science Center dedicated to Great Bay less than an hour away.
Scott was in China so the MP and I headed over to my old stomping grounds on the Seacoast on a Saturday. The Science Center was small (but free) and the people there were so nice to the MP. They showed him Horseshoe crab eggs, and the live fellas themselves. He got to hold one and give it a thorough exam. We learned about their history, evolution, uses in medical testing and the magical powers of their blood. It was awesome.
(I need to note here that last year when we were at the Baltimore airport he bought a shirt that says “Don’t bother me I ‘m Crabby” with a Maryland crab on it. He had to wear it to the Science Center in honor of crabs everywhere. Oh and btw, the shirt is the height of irony as he is NEVER crabby, more on the shirt in a bit).
So we spent quite a while at the Center. We then went down to the water and along the great raised path they have out over the water. It was so much fun.
He had spotted a small gift shop and wanted to stop on our way back to the car. When we went back in the woman who had showed us around said “you are still here?” I didn’t realize we had been wandering around for an hour. We found this amazing poster of North American estuaries and the animals that inhabit them. It was one of those illustrations that is really well done and I assumed it would cost at least $20. Turns out it was free. Which was a nice top to a great low budget excursion.
I gave the MP the option of eating at Newick’s (ironic given the animals we had been appreciating) or Moe’s the best sub shop in Portsmouth. He opted for the latter and we ate our sandwiches in Prescott Park. I suggested we hit the Dunaway store at Strawberry Banke for some candy post lunch.
Unfortunately the Dunaway store was turned into some swanky restaurant and definitely did not sell rock candy and fireballs anymore (bastards). So we sauntered over to the visitor’s center to see if they had moved the candy. Well they had, in the meantime I had been peppered with questions as to what was Strawberry Banke and could we go in? I thought about it and decided I had kind of saved $20 on the poster so the $25 I was about to waste with admission to the Banke was a wash.
Strawberry Banke was one of my favorite places as a little girl. Especially at Christmas when the houses were all decorated for the holiday. But I was a nerdy little girl who read all the Little House on the Prairie books.
I was CONVINCED he would not at all be interested in old houses and their history. How wrong I was.
We started at the Goodwin Mansion as it was my favorite as a little girl and quite frankly, my dream home. They had croquet set up on the front lawn (we love croquet) and some other 18th century lawn games. The MP tried them all. We went into the house and the tour guide gave us the story of how it belonged to the governor and the time frame, etc. And the MP asked questions. And wanted to look in every room. So we did.
Then we moved onto some other houses. And looked in every room. And learned about personal hygiene in the 1800s (“they peed in a pot and put it under their bed???”).
We visited a store from the 1940s and talked to a lady from the time period. The MP really wanted to circle back and see her and ask her more questions about “Sherman’s war” (my grampy, his middle name sake fought in WWII and we have much love for Sherman and his service to country in our family).
Now, I had planned on lunch and a quick trip to get some candy buttons. I had only put money in the meter for two hours. We were slowly making our way toward a parking ticket and still had 10 houses yet to go. I had to pinky swear on my blackberry we would go back in the summer. Who would have thought that an eight year old boy would give a flying fig about some old houses and weird old ladies dressed in period costume? But he did and he wanted to know could he work there when he grew up? And how long had it been there? And where did the houses come from? And, and, and.
While we were exploring the grounds, we passed a group of three grownups (probably in their 50s) and one of the guys stopped, read the MP’s crabby shirt and nearly busted a gut from laughing (“OMG, he is crabby, and there is a crab on the shirt!! BAAHAHA”. Seriously, the shirt is not that funny. And it is an old joke. And the guy was sincerely laughing not taking the piss.) He wanted to know where we got the shirt, and was the MP actually crabby. And he told his wife/sister/both he wanted to get one. And then of course we ran into them five more times. And every time, he said something about the shirt (under his breath: “so funny, I’m crabby with a crab.”)
As I have documented the MP has a one track mind. About a month after our visit to the Banke he and Scott ran a 10k (that’s 6.25 miles and he did it in 69 minutes. That is impressive.) in Portsmouth. I had company in at the weekend so I couldn’t join them. But I made sure the MP knew that the race ended at Strawberry Banke. Did that make him run faster? I don’t know. But he and Scott did visit a couple of houses, after running the race. And I am sure we will be there again this summer.
So I will take him to the FLW house and not worry about ‘wasting money’ on the admission fee, he will want to stay longer than I will probably.
And I am going to get him the 1200 piece Tower Bridge Lego set for his birthday (suggested for those with an engineering degree only) and help him out when he needs it. Not that I think he will. He will no doubt love it, as one of his favorite activities is to watch the live Tower Bridge cam on the internet. That’s right; we stare at a bridge in London for fun. Sometimes it is nice to be weird in the same way.
The MP had an end of year project at school to write about an oceanic sea creature. After some brainstorming with my dad he decided he was going to write about the Horseshoe Crab. Good choice as it is native to the waters off the New Hampshire coast. Basically we kicked butt on that presentation research. I took books out of the library, my dad sent him an article about Horseshoe Crab research at UNH. We googled, and wikipedia’ed and basically could tell you what ever the hell you want to know about a horseshoe crab. I am nothing if not thorough. I went online and found out that they live in Great Bay, and there is a Science Center dedicated to Great Bay less than an hour away.
Scott was in China so the MP and I headed over to my old stomping grounds on the Seacoast on a Saturday. The Science Center was small (but free) and the people there were so nice to the MP. They showed him Horseshoe crab eggs, and the live fellas themselves. He got to hold one and give it a thorough exam. We learned about their history, evolution, uses in medical testing and the magical powers of their blood. It was awesome.
(I need to note here that last year when we were at the Baltimore airport he bought a shirt that says “Don’t bother me I ‘m Crabby” with a Maryland crab on it. He had to wear it to the Science Center in honor of crabs everywhere. Oh and btw, the shirt is the height of irony as he is NEVER crabby, more on the shirt in a bit).
So we spent quite a while at the Center. We then went down to the water and along the great raised path they have out over the water. It was so much fun.
He had spotted a small gift shop and wanted to stop on our way back to the car. When we went back in the woman who had showed us around said “you are still here?” I didn’t realize we had been wandering around for an hour. We found this amazing poster of North American estuaries and the animals that inhabit them. It was one of those illustrations that is really well done and I assumed it would cost at least $20. Turns out it was free. Which was a nice top to a great low budget excursion.
I gave the MP the option of eating at Newick’s (ironic given the animals we had been appreciating) or Moe’s the best sub shop in Portsmouth. He opted for the latter and we ate our sandwiches in Prescott Park. I suggested we hit the Dunaway store at Strawberry Banke for some candy post lunch.
Unfortunately the Dunaway store was turned into some swanky restaurant and definitely did not sell rock candy and fireballs anymore (bastards). So we sauntered over to the visitor’s center to see if they had moved the candy. Well they had, in the meantime I had been peppered with questions as to what was Strawberry Banke and could we go in? I thought about it and decided I had kind of saved $20 on the poster so the $25 I was about to waste with admission to the Banke was a wash.
Strawberry Banke was one of my favorite places as a little girl. Especially at Christmas when the houses were all decorated for the holiday. But I was a nerdy little girl who read all the Little House on the Prairie books.
I was CONVINCED he would not at all be interested in old houses and their history. How wrong I was.
We started at the Goodwin Mansion as it was my favorite as a little girl and quite frankly, my dream home. They had croquet set up on the front lawn (we love croquet) and some other 18th century lawn games. The MP tried them all. We went into the house and the tour guide gave us the story of how it belonged to the governor and the time frame, etc. And the MP asked questions. And wanted to look in every room. So we did.
Then we moved onto some other houses. And looked in every room. And learned about personal hygiene in the 1800s (“they peed in a pot and put it under their bed???”).
We visited a store from the 1940s and talked to a lady from the time period. The MP really wanted to circle back and see her and ask her more questions about “Sherman’s war” (my grampy, his middle name sake fought in WWII and we have much love for Sherman and his service to country in our family).
Now, I had planned on lunch and a quick trip to get some candy buttons. I had only put money in the meter for two hours. We were slowly making our way toward a parking ticket and still had 10 houses yet to go. I had to pinky swear on my blackberry we would go back in the summer. Who would have thought that an eight year old boy would give a flying fig about some old houses and weird old ladies dressed in period costume? But he did and he wanted to know could he work there when he grew up? And how long had it been there? And where did the houses come from? And, and, and.
While we were exploring the grounds, we passed a group of three grownups (probably in their 50s) and one of the guys stopped, read the MP’s crabby shirt and nearly busted a gut from laughing (“OMG, he is crabby, and there is a crab on the shirt!! BAAHAHA”. Seriously, the shirt is not that funny. And it is an old joke. And the guy was sincerely laughing not taking the piss.) He wanted to know where we got the shirt, and was the MP actually crabby. And he told his wife/sister/both he wanted to get one. And then of course we ran into them five more times. And every time, he said something about the shirt (under his breath: “so funny, I’m crabby with a crab.”)
As I have documented the MP has a one track mind. About a month after our visit to the Banke he and Scott ran a 10k (that’s 6.25 miles and he did it in 69 minutes. That is impressive.) in Portsmouth. I had company in at the weekend so I couldn’t join them. But I made sure the MP knew that the race ended at Strawberry Banke. Did that make him run faster? I don’t know. But he and Scott did visit a couple of houses, after running the race. And I am sure we will be there again this summer.
So I will take him to the FLW house and not worry about ‘wasting money’ on the admission fee, he will want to stay longer than I will probably.
And I am going to get him the 1200 piece Tower Bridge Lego set for his birthday (suggested for those with an engineering degree only) and help him out when he needs it. Not that I think he will. He will no doubt love it, as one of his favorite activities is to watch the live Tower Bridge cam on the internet. That’s right; we stare at a bridge in London for fun. Sometimes it is nice to be weird in the same way.
posted by Kristi Hallowell @ 5:27 PM
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