290 Express

Taking advantage of our new closer proximity to Houston, Claire and I made a quick road trip to see my parents this weekend. We left Kit back in Austin for some seriously overdue R&R. Kit was reluctant to let us go and wanted to talk on the phone a couple of times each day. She was usually waking up or falling asleep from a nap whenever we talked to her, so apparently the forced respite was a good idea.

Claire and I got to Houston in no time. We entertained ourselves in the car by listening to audio books, namely The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, selections inspired by her recent fascination with another Dr. Seuss story. On the way back, Claire fell asleep for about half the trip and estimated that the whole trip took about 10 minutes.

We had some good adventures during our one-night visit to Houston. Claire got to play with my mom, briefly visit Discovery Green downtown, escape a sudden and unexpected rainstorm downtown, go out to eat in soaking wet clothes, consume an entire ear of roasted corn, dry off, go swimming, dry off again, and fall sleep on a giant inflatable bed.

"I want to go back to Houston!" she would say more than a few times after getting home. Yes, Austin has a lot to offer, but two things it will not give you are her grandparents and (at least this summer) a good fun rainstorm.

Our Hero Horton

When we moved to Austin, we were the beneficiaries of free HBO for a couple of fleeting days. With access to all those great movies, we recorded as much as possible to the DVR. One such movie was Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!, which somebody (Kit's dad?) decided to record. How lucky for Claire.

Claire watched this movie the first time with Kit's dad. She seemed to enjoy it, but she forgot about it pretty quickly. A week or two later, we had it on again for some reason. This time, it really clicked for Claire. I mean, really clicked. It has literally been the only thing she has watched on TV for the last three or four weeks. She has lost interest in all other shows. I tried to get her to watch some other shows over breakfast such as her old favorites The Little Einsteins, Olivia, or the newcomer Special Agent Oso. But Claire has none of it. "I want to see Horton," she always explains. It's not worth fighting over, and Horton really is a great movie, so what the heck.

Horton may have even surpassed the cast-induced obsession Finding Nemo as her favorite movie, and that is saying something. And I can see where Claire is coming from. These movies get better with each viewing. After a while, you start to feel a special attachment to the characters, like they are part of the family. And you start to appreciate some of the unnoticed funny lines and small details that are crammed into these quick movies. Come to think of it, I haven't seen anything else except Horton for the past three weeks either!

By the way, we also got the original Dr. Seuss book that the movie is based on. To my surprise, much of the fine rhyming narration from the movie is actually not in the book. I assumed that all the charming, melodic narration was take straight from the book, but most of it is not. Also, the movie adds a whole lot of character development that is not in the book. It seems that screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (according to IMDB) may have out-Seuss'ed the beloved Dr. Seuss!

Book Shortage

This morning, I was explaining the day's plan to Claire. It seems to help her to know what to expect. I started with the basics: it is Sunday, so it is not a school day; it is a Mommy & Daddy day. Claire corrected me and explained that today is actually a Mommy, Daddy, and Muffin day. Then I went on to explain the errands for the day. First we would go buy some shampoo, and then we would go to the bookstore and get some new books for Mommy. Claire glanced up at the 12-foot tall bookshelf in the living room, half covered in books, and looked a little confused. After a few seconds, she said, "Are we running out of books?"

Chrysanthemum

Claire's favorite book these days is Chrysanthemum. It has become the book she always wants to read, and she still enjoys it no matter how many times you read it to her. She even likes to "read" it to us. She does a pretty good job at it too, considering that she has some sections of the book memorized. There is a page in the book with pictures of about 16 kids, and a name above each. Claire has all the names on that page memorized.

When Claire reads to us, she starts out, "Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes. The day she was born was the best day in her mother and father's life..." then she needs some gentle reminders past that. Kevin Henkes is the author of another past favorite, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. Both books feature mice dealing with tough times at school and ultimately coming out better in the end. I am sure our little mouse is going through the same process every weekday.

Here is some footage of Claire reading Chrysanthemum.

Still Can't Read

Claire was in her room looking at a pile of her books before bath time this evening. Then she brought a big board book into the bathroom where I was drawing her bath and getting everything ready for bedtime. She asked me to read the book, and I said sorry, not right now, I am busy. She threw the book down and started crying. Usually she gets a little annoyed, but not that upset, when I tell her I'm busy. So I asked her what was the matter. She looked down, with tears in her eyes, and said in a quiet voice, "I'm too little to read it." It was so sweet and sad. Then Kit showed up and read the book to her and cheered her up. I am afraid Claire has a pretty long wait before she can read books "all by her own self", as she says, but it is nice to see she is motivated.

I don't like it!

For a while now, we have been reading to Claire a big picture book called The Inside Out Book of Texas, partly for fun and partly to prepare for next summer's move to Dallas. The first page features a big drawing of the Dallas skyline. Normally when Claire sees it she happily says, "Dallas!" But yesterday she saw it and said, "I don't like Dallas!"

At first, this seemed like a bad sign for the big move, but I felt better today when Claire repeatedly declared, "I don't like Thomas!" Thomas, of course, is Claire's very favorite train character. She even named her favorite bathtub toy, an orange plastic dolphin, after him.

Claire has since claimed to dislike our dog Muffin and butterflies -- yes, butterflies. It's almost a good thing to be on Claire's "don't like" list these days. I expect that tomorrow morning I will hear her say, "I don't like pancakes!" even as she gobbles them down.

Blue Train, Green Train

Claire is obsessed with Thomas the Train. As Grace would say, "Le encanta!"

For example, I bought Claire some new Thomas the Train cups. Now whenever I make her a drink, Claire ask for her new cups by name, "Thomas cup! Thomas cup!" Then she will look at the cups and recite the name of the trains over and over...Thomas, Henry, James. This is often punctuated by a loud drawn out, "Thoommas!"

For the most part, this Thomas obsession is harmless. But now it is encroaching on our bedtime reading choices. We have started asking Claire which book she would like to read, and every night she quickly says, "Thomas book!" meaning her little board book entitled Blue Train, Green Train. It is great to see Claire so enthusiastic about reading and what not, but Kit and I have come to loath that damn Thomas book.

Our dislike is not just due to boredom or repetition; we can read something like There's a Wocket in my Pocket all night. The real problem here is that Blue Train, Green Train is just a terrible book. It is supposed to be a rhyming sing-song type of book, but the rhythm jumps all over the place, and it is very jarring to read. Here is a sample.

Unload the blue bikes,
red wagons, orange trikes!
Unload the new toys
for happy little girls and boys!

Down goes the yellow sun.
Blue train Thomas' day is done.
Home now to the Shed.
"Peep!  Peep!"  The Shed is where
Thomas can sleep.

Well done, blue train.
Have fun, green train.

Up peeps the white moon.
Green train starts soon.
"Peep!  Peep!"  Clickety-clack!
Green train Percy on the track.

Load up all the mail
and unload along the rail.

I picked this book because it has a variety of things for Claire to look at and name, like blue bikes, red wagons, and orange "trikes." Fortunately Claire does seem to be warming up to other books with lots of stuff to look at, such as the terrific Carl the Dog books. One great thing about the Carl books is that they have almost no words.

Zurikoo and the Deathly Hallows

This morning we went to Borders for story time, which is at 11:00 every Saturday. Besides just being something fun to do, we are hoping this will help Claire become more comfortable in large groups of unruly kids. Granted, aside from the occasional kid hopping around the story circle, the kids are not that unruly, but there certainly are lots of them, from little babies to school-aged kids.

Coincidentally, the last Harry Potter book also comes out today, so we half expected some sort of mad house at the book store. Entering the store, the mad house turned out to be only a guy at a card table with a clipboard and a highlighter, distributing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to people who had pre-ordered it. Kit had ordered it on Amazon already, so we expected to see it on our doorstep sometime today.

We made it upstairs to the children's book section for story time. In the past, Claire has generally opted to sit in my lap and listen during story time, usually getting up to explore and mix with the other kids only in the last five minutes or so. This time around, Claire was mixing it up sooner, doing some nice dancing and stomping during Miss Wendy's more upbeat sings like "Driving in My Car" and "Wheels on the Bus". Then she would clap enthusiastically and retreat back to my lap during the book readings or quieter songs like "These Are My Glasses". After this happened a couple of times, Kit said I should "get smaller" so Claire would actually sit in her own lap sometimes. Apparently my lap was too cushiony and expansive, and it overpowered Kit's lap for sitting comfort. I managed to scrunch up some, although I was quite uncomfortable. But it did the trick, as Claire hopped in Kit's lap (and I got to loosen up again).

After story time, another mom came up and told us in a thick accent that Claire "Looks just like Zurikoo". "Excuse me?", I said. The lady said more clearly this time, "She looks just like Suri Cruise." I don't know, I think Claire might be a little cuter than Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' kid. Well, maybe it's a toss up.

After we got home, the Harry Potter book magically showed up on our doorstep with special instructions for Muggles like our mailman. Now we finally have the full series, consisting of several thousand pages, that Kit plans to eventually read to Claire. I hope Claire likes Harry Potter!