My Friend Klaatu

Have you ever seen "Ladri di Biciclette" (The Bicycle Thief)? How about "The Day The Earth Stood Still"? What do these two movies have in common? And who is Klaatu?

BJ and I enjoy watching old movies together, and last Sunday I was reminded of a few classics by, of all people, the leader of a band visiting our church. He sang a few songs, one inspired by "The Bicycle Thief" and another about Klaatu from "The Day The Earth Stood Still." These are kind of weird topics for a band to be singing about, I think. And, to answer my earlier question, the movies have nothing in common, except their inspiration for this guy's lyrics (and they were both made waaaaaay before I was born: 1948 and 1951, respectively). I've had the Klaatu song stuck in my head this week. Since I hadn't seen it, I picked up the 1951 version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" from the library and watched it tonight. I really liked it. And I can tell I'd be completely disappointed with the 2008 version (with Keanu Reeves). If you've never seen it, it's about an alien visitor with a message to give to Earth. It's great to see how a good story can suck you in, without relying on fantastic special effects or 3D.

If you're in the mood to watch some classic films with a friend this weekend, visit your library, grab some popcorn, and watch either of these. You won't be disappointed (although I should warn you that "Ladri di Biciclette" is in Italian with English subtitles).

And if zombies are more your style (I heard people talking about zombies on NPR this morning driving my friend to the airport--thus the recommendation) maybe you should watch "Shaun of the Dead" with Simon Pegg. Skip the popcorn and make sure there are no kids around with this one.

And if sheep are entertaining to you, or anything by the creators of Wallace and Gromit, you should definitely find a DVD of "Shaun the Sheep." But maybe you should only watch this one with children in the room.

My Kids Love Birthday Parties!

We went to several birthday parties in April, and now Toby has birthdays on the brain. Every day we get the "Is today my birthday?" question. Today I had him count to 30 so he knows how many days are left until his birthday. I want each birthday to be special, but we are really bad about planning parties for kids. Company coming for dinner? No problem, we say. A multiple course dinner party for 8? 10? 12? We're on it. A birthday party for 5 year olds? Not really sure what to do with that. We've waited until the kids are old enough to ask for what they want in a party, which means that last year Toby got Oscar the Grouch cupcakes, and cousins as guests. Even now, after a year in preschool, Toby's showed more interest in just having a birth day to celebrate than having a party.
And we've been to some spectacular parties. Remember the one a few years ago for the kid (who we barely knew) whose father worked for the party rental company? The party with a bounce house and popcorn machine and crazy pirate cake? I think that kid was turning 6 and there were probably 40 people there. And just last month we went to a party with over 20 people, a fantastically amazing train cake, and a personalized banner for the birthday boy; he was turning two.
I'm not sure what type of party we'll have for Toby this year. I've signed us up for a family fun run in neighboring Noank, which should be a good experience for Toby. He's already telling people he's going to run in a race. :o)

My Camera

I have a love-hate relationship with my camera. I like that I have a camera. But I hate how the pictures come out. Granted, this is mostly a user-error-related problem, but I wish I had a talent for making my kids look good on film. I recently ordered over 100 prints from the last few months to put together for the kids' albums and I think 90% of them are pixellated or blurry or just plain awful. Few are nice enough to send to relatives, and none are going to be framed for our home collection. But I still think it's important to catalog the kids and what they're doing. Like our visits to the aquarium, spending time with grandparents and great-grandparents, and just hanging out as a family.

I've been terrible about posting pictures of the kids on the blog, so here are a few videos. We sat outside and watched the kids play for a while the other day. Toby spent time running around and digging in the garden, after trying out a game of Bocce ball. Norah worked on her tumbling and hopping skills and found a couple fun things to do with a butterfly net. (Notice the way she blatantly ignores what we're asking her to do; you get a glimpse into our day-to-day activities with a two year old.)

Please excuse the poor quality of these videos. The camera we started out with a few years ago just took videos without sound, and we regret not being able to remember what Toby sounded like when he was younger. We got this camera just after Norah was born.

My May Day

On the first of May I ran a 3.5 mile road race, my first of the season. It was a beautiful morning, hot and sunny. My mom came over to watch the kids so I had plenty of time by myself before the race to people watch (and presumably warm up).

There were probably over 500 people participating, including the walkers. The race was sponsored by Lawrence & Memorial Hospital (which is where I was born). There were several teams of runners from the various hospital departments and their matching shirts all had catchy slogans: labor and delivery had hot pink shirts with "Fundus Among Us" on the back, the pharmacy people's shirts said "Drugs R Us," the surgery said "Slash and Dash," and the physical therapy shirts said "Rehab: Not just for addicts." I got to read all these shirts not just while milling around before the start but while they passed me throughout the course. :o) I started near the front line and finished the race at a blistering pace for me, but well behind the pack (I came in 244th--the winner could have almost ran the race a 2nd time and still beaten me). Actually, I finished in the top 50th percentile for my age group, which is a massive improvement over my finish at my first 5K in September. The top finishers all had sub-six minute mile times, and the top female finisher was a 15 year old. Some time I'd like to watch one of these races from the finish line because I'm curious to see just how fast a 6-minute mile is (since I'll never get there myself). These are the people that take themselves a little too seriously for my taste. But I hope they're having fun. And the winners got a little trophy.

Overall I feel like I ran well, and I am proud to say I didn't puke, unlike the guy I passed at the three mile mark. :o) However, I think I should have stretched more because now and then I catch myself walking around like a stiff-limbed zombie. And that's only after a 3.5 mile race. I don't see myself in any 10K's anytime soon!

My Swimmer

Here's Toby, at his second swim lesson, in line to jump into the pool. This is how they end each lesson. I'm still not sold on their ability to teach Toby how to swim, but at least he's in the water each week kicking and paddling and getting wet. Last week after he jumped into the pool at the end of the lesson one of the teachers took off his flotation device and gave him a little test to see what he can do with out it. He promptly went underwater. But he discovered that he can touch at the shallow end, and they said that he needs to kick his feet more, instead of just paddling with his hands. This isn't something we'll be able to practice in the bathtub at home, so we'll just have to remind him before his swim lesson to try kicking with his legs more.

My Whale and Shark Encounters

One beautiful morning over spring break we went to the Mystic Aquarium. Our first stop was to see the beluga whales. The youngest beluga took an interest in the kids at the viewing window, and instead of just swimming by he seemed to tread water at the window and check out the kids. I can't quite describe how cool it was to see this huge whale floating just on the other side of the glass. He stayed there for a long time and a crowd quickly gathered to see him float and interact with the kids.
Once the whale swam away we went to the touch pool and hung out with the sting rays, then went inside to check out the new shark touch pool. The kids decided this was their new favorite exhibit at the aquarium, and I see us going there a lot in the near future!

My Natural History Museum Visit

Earlier in April (the day before Easter, to be exact) we spent a Saturday in Boston visiting some friends. We took the kids to Harvard Square and the Harvard Museum of Natural History. This picture is one of the only ones we took all day--we hopped from one exhibit to the next pretty quickly, and the kids were enthralled by it all (for as long as their attention spans could hold). Toby liked the whale bones and Norah liked all the stuffed animals (tigers, bears, etc.).
We walked all over, rode busses and the train, and enjoyed a fantastic (vegetarian) meal with our friends. The kids had so much fun, and they were really well-behaved, which enabled mom and dad to have fun too!