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!

Love that Pen!

Claire has never really had a true lovie, comfort item, or whatever you want to call it. There has never been a consistent object that she would not part with, she wanted to bring to bed, and she looked for the first thing in the morning. The usual suspects have failed the test. She likes her stuffed animals well enough, but they are really just regular toys that end up getting scattered around her room and then summarily ignored. She likes her purple sleep blanket, but she does not normally use it outside of sleep time.

So imagine our surprise when Claire developed a strong, dedicated attachment to a pen. Actually, it's a highlighter. A green one. But we call it a pen.

She tracks this pen with great dedication. She holds it in the car seat on the way to school. She walks it to the front door of the school, where I finally collect it from her. She asks who is going to pick her up, and which car we will be in. If the afternoon car is different than the morning car, then she asks if we can possibly transfer her green pen to the other car so she can have it immediately after school. At night, she always holds her green pen during story time and puts it down on the floor right next to the bed when it is time to turn out the lights. Occasionally there is a small panic if we cannot find said pen before bedtime. It is truly a lovie. Except she is not allowed to cuddle with it in bed. You know, because of the pen marks and all.

This pen is the sister of a purple highlighter Claire's her mom gave her for entertainment in the hospital when she broke her leg. I think that was the seed for why this pen is special. Claire quickly dried the purple one of ink, and we ended up giving her the green one as a replacement. She quickly dried the green one of ink too, but she still carries it around and has not lost interest yet.

Publisher's Note: On the night of July 30, 2009, Claire really, really lost her green pen. However, by pure luck, she was distracted by some new Horton Hears a Who! finger puppets, which she took to bed in her pen's stead. Over the next week or so, the finger puppets have yielded to a "squiggly straw" as her new comfort item. So we are officially over the missing green pen. But that pen definitely held the record by far for number of days as Claire's lovie.

Music Update

Claire always loves her kids' music. She loves to hear anything from the Countdown Kids. She will listen to them sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame or I've Been Working on the Railroad over and over dozens of times. She is also enjoying a Backyardigans CD I bought her recently. They sing so high and squeeky, but the music itself it not half bad.

Normally Claire is not a big fan of "real" music. When I play my own CD's in the car, she'll say, "That's one of your songs, Daddy. Is it time to listen to one of my songs?" But occasionally she actually likes grown-up music. Her current favorites are the Fleet Foxes. They are a very strange group, combining folk, progressive rock, and lots of vocal harmonies that sound kind of folksy and choral at the same time, along with a little Beach Boys tossed in for good measure. It is weird stuff, but Claire likes it. She asks what the songs are about, and she asks to hear them again.

Her other favorite is Christmas with Weezer. She just cannot get enough of the perennial geek rock band performing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. She has enjoyed Weezer in the past too. There was a period about a year ago where she seemed to enjoy The Sweater Song. She even noted, "That is a gooood song."

The Glowing Towers of Dallas

Ever since it has started to get dark earlier, Claire has developed an intense interest in the glowing towers of Dallas. The first one that got her attention, and still her favorite, is the 921-foot tall Bank of America Tower downtown. Not only is it extremely tall, but is it also decorated with neon green lights from top to bottom, like a gigantic Christmas tree. Driving around Dallas, to and from school, shopping, or whatever, we sometimes catch fleeting glimpses of this tower, and Claire yells, "There's the green tower!" Claire's theory is that a prince lives in the top of the tower, and kids live on the other floors. At one point, Claire became so obsessive about this tower that she cried and yelled when she could not see it any more, and the disappointment ruined her mood for the whole night until we put her to bed. I think that episode was more about being tired or otherwise messed up than the tower itself. We talked about it the next day, and she sort of apologized for acting so mad about it and said she just wanted to see the tower again sometime.

Her fondness extends to other towers as well. She enjoys the Cityplace Tower, which is closer to our house, so we get better views of it. She calls this "the tower that matches my hair", although she also knows it and the Bank of America Tower by their official names. (I personally like to call it Nakatomi Plaza since it reminds me of the movie Die Hard). From school she can see a clock tower and an office building with blue neon lights around the top. She says a prince also lives in the blue tower, but probably no kids live in the clock tower. You can tell she thinks these things through.

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.

Reign of the Croc

Claire has worn her little pink Crocs almost every day for as long as I can remember. I think she got those Crocs as a present from Grammy last year for Christmas or her birthday, so she has been wearing them for close to a year straight. These little pink rubber Mary Janes have gone from a little big too to a little small for her feet, but they still work great, and after a good rinse they look like new.

But the reign cannot last forever. The venerable shoes finally have a challenger, or two. Claire was looking through her clothes the other day when she discovered a pair of brand new Dora the Explorer shoes we got her a few months ago on sale. They were too big for Claire until now. Claire now likes to wear her Dora shoes as often as her Crocs. She also got a pair of golden slippers -- yes, golden slippers -- at a consignment sale this weekend. These may be her new favorites! She insists on wearing them with a dress, and loves to dance in them.

With all of this rapid shoe change, I just wanted to give those Crocs a tip of the hat before we forgot about them. It is hard to imagine a better shoe for a little kid, and they seemed like a perfect match for Claire.