Birthday in Charlotte

Last weekend we were in Charlotte, visiting our friends whose son was turning 3. I had to drive both to and from since Chris is still on crutches. Somehow we managed to get lost on the way to Charlotte AND on the way back. This worries me a bit considering our upcoming trip to FL.

Anyway, the weather was kind of weird with very strong winds and rain. At least there were no tornados in Charlotte. We mostly stayed indoors and ate delicious food prepared by Sveta. When the weather improved we would go outside into the yard and the kids would run around.

The most surprising thing to me was that M made a complete turn-around from his usual attitude toward getting wet or running around barefoot. Actually, he spent most of the weekend without shoes or socks, running on wet grass, playing with sand, and stomping in the little puddles.

Even when we went to a little playground, he wanted to run around a fountain without shoes stopping once in a while to test water temperature.

On Saturday the kids were busy for a little while dyeing eggs. M selected one egg, put 3 stickers on it for the eyes and a mouth, and spent quite some time trying to chat it up (as usual, I provided the voice-over).

The next day was M's little friend's birthday. Lots of balloons and new toys to play with. The weather has improved enough and the men were out grilling. Then it was time for a birthday cake and for our drive back.

Big Messy Art: Rocket Stuff

Our next Big and Messy project was very simple. A large scale painting is all it really was. But the awesome part is when you work with something large-scale, you get to use big and important tools, adult tools that would otherwise be off-limits. Ok, almost off-limits...

So for this one the set up was super simple. I just rolled out a long sheet of paper (we got this perforated paper for free from a local store that was getting rid of quite a few rolls; it's thin, kinda like printer paper which it just might be.)

The tools I offered included a real-life roller (saved from our room-painting project), a small yellow crafts roller, a big foam paint brush and another real paint brush, also from our room-painting. I thought M would go for the big roller or a brush, but he mostly used the little yellow roller. Go figure!

M got to choose paint colors. He wanted yellow and red because, as he explained, he was going to paint fire that comes out of the space shuttle's engines. My suggestion to use glitter was enthusiastically accepted.

There was a bit of a snag in the project. You see, the paper was pretty thin (and perforated in places). The driveway - pretty rough. Plus all that paint made the paper kind of soggy. Well, to make a long story short, the wonderful fire painting got a fairly sizeable tear in it. Which led to tears although M didn't stop painting, but instead painted more furiously.

Once the entire thing was dry and I patched the holes with some clear tape, M rolled the painting on the floor and used it as a launch pad for all his rockets.

Big Messy Art: How to Become Megamind

The next Big and Messy project we tried involved powdered tempera and lots of soap bubbles. We tried it on a very warm, clear and sunny day.

Here's how it was supposed to work:

I were to put some powdered tempera into a flour sifter. M would then sift it over a large piece of paper. He then would blow bubbles over that piece of paper. Bubbles would pop, their liquid mixing with tempera to form beautiful circular patterns.

Here's how it really worked:

Most of the tempera fell straight through the sifter into a neat little pile almost in the middle of the paper. We had to use our hands to spread it around more evenly. We had to shake of excess powder (which was most of what I poured into the sifter). Then we learned one simple truth about bubbles - when you blow on them, even on a very calm day, they don't exactly want to float downward. Not right away anyway. First they want to fly up and sideways and this way and that way, anywhere but the tempera-covered paper. Maybe we needed bigger and wetter bubbles...

So as an art experiment it wasn't as much success as I expected. But it's not my expectations that count here, right? M loved it! First, he discovered that he can quickly make his hands blue "just like Megamind's, mama!". If that wasn't exciting enough, there were tons of bubbles to chase all around the yard and pop (being careful not to step into the vegetable beds).

This run-around was done in rainboots ('cause you know, they are simple to clean). This pair of boots, cute as they are, is a bit too big for M. So as he was chasing the bubbles, one of the boots came off and flew in a surprisingly graceful arch through the air. Which, naturally, led to a game of "kick the boot of my foot". Which somehow lead to a not-altogether unrelated game of "toss the boot to the fence".

If you've never played either of these games, try! They are really fun. How do I know? Well, I was wearing my own fancy-shmancy pair that was a bit too big for me.

Studying Grossology

This was actually one of the first things we did after getting back from NY. We went to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences to check out the Animal Grossology exhibit (it's still going on for another few days).

I think that what stopped us before was the fact that although the museum admission is free, this particular exhibit is not. And it's not exactly cheap either - $8 for adults and $5 for children. Except, of course, that M is only 4 and all those under 5 get in for free. And so we went.

We got there a bit too early and had a chance to walk around checking out NC flora and fauna. M usually doesn't care, except for the giant whale skeletons hanging from the ceiling. But this time he was interested in owls, especially in the small one that he dubbed "Owly" after Mr. H. Hiram Bish's little Owly. (If you are not familiar with the story called "Pinky Pye", you might want to run to the library right away. M can listen to this story over and over. He then pretends, in his usual fashion, that H. Hiram Bish, the famed ornithologist, is staying over at our house with his Owly. He also tends to call our cat, Xander, Pinky Pye).

But back to the Animal Grossology. It was awesome! Let me list the main attractions there (the ones that M spent most of the time on):

1. The burping and farting cow - M spent a combined total of 40 minutes watching how this mechanical cow moved food between her 4 stomachs. He moved the levers and pushed buttons and checked whether the cow was chewing the cud and lifting her tail in proper order. He called it all "helping the cow digest" [помогать корове пищеварять] and took his job of "digestion helper" [пищеварятельный помошник] very seriously.

2. The Penguin's Pooping Party - the story, as told by a penguin, is short and gross - he invited some zoo animals to his party, but they came, pooped (party poopers, get it?) and disappeared, leaving steaming piles of dung behind them. The penguin then asked for help in identifying those party poopers - a rabbit, a bird, a wild cat of some sort, and an elephant - and matching them to their excrements - 4 walk throughs and countless retells on our way home.

3. Vomit Slurping Fly - a giant fly that talked his feeding habits quite openly and with a New Jersey accent - M listened to the whole lecture, although I think he was fascinated by the fly itself.

4. Transfusion Confusion game - the premise is simple - Nurse Gross has to prepare animal blood for transfusion to various animals (mostly insects, inverterbrate and spiders). But she needs to figure out which blood has to go to which animal 'cause you know different animals have different colored blood (red, white, or blue - very 4th of July, really). Players must help the nurse or else she'll be on permanent bedpan duty. M played this game at least 10 times.

5. A video of a tapeworm travelling through intestines - M watched this video a couple of times without aparent interest, but since then he washes his hands better for sure (and so do I, so do I).

6. Slippery Sea Slide - at the end of the exhibit, there was this submarine for the kids to play in. But it also had a slide shaped like a sea snake (or a sea worm). So you enter the worm's rear end, climb through a narrow twisted passage, then slide down and emerge from its mouth. A very unsettling experience for adults. But the kids - M and his little friends who came with us - loved it.

The exit was, of course, through a gift shop. I considered buying a T-shirt with "World's Most Endangered Fieces" on it, but M wanted a small toy mouse instead. The mouse was tiny (think cat's toy) and very realistic. M held it gently in the palm of his hand, talking to it about this and that. We exited the gift shop and went to see the dinosaurs and talk about their poop (bigger than elephant's for sure!)

Big Messy Art: The Decision

I've already mentioned how, thanks to a cold and snowy winter spent almost entirely indoors, I now have way much energy. Well, I haven't run out of steam just yet. The garden is still being worked on. M's room's been painted and awaiting some IKEA furniture. I'm still working out regularly, 3 days a week, at the gym...

Next on my list - doing more art with M or rather having him explore art more. As Maria, a wonderfully mathematical friend of mine, explained to me, there are two types of children (and people in general) - microscopists and giantists. M is clearly a giantist. He shows absolutely no interest in small-scale projects, but is eager to try something really-really-really HUGE or at least LARGE SCALE.

Which might explain why my approach of handing him a small paintbrush and a smallish piece of paper wasn't exactly working out for us. Fortunately, I picked up a library copy of Mary Ann Kohl's "Big Messy Art". Basically, it's familiar "process over product" art ideas, only supersized. Which, by the way, allows to use many exciting new "non-artsy" tools - an important point for a boy who isn't too excited about regular paintbrushes.

Our first project was a while ago. It was called "Flyswatter Painting" because it was just that - dipping a fly swatter into some paint and making prints on a large piece of paper.

M was so delighted with the project that he didn't even mind some paint splatters on his face and hands (this is definitely an outside project). Encouraged by such warm reception, I wanted to continue, setting an ambitious goal of 1 new project each day. Fortunately, the weather interfered; it got cold, windy and rainy. I cooled off a bit and decided to take is slowly, enjoying the process and letting M set the pace.