The Great Bald.ini -- Guest Post by J

We attend many free library shows, and as a result, have seen many magicians. Some of these magicians have been fantastic and amazing. Others were more like the Great Bald.ini.

We saw the Great Bald.ini last night for his "One World, Many Stories" show, the third stop on his 40-library tour in Rhode Island. Given Bald.ini's performance and given how corrupt Rhode Island is, I have to assume he got the contract because he's somebody's cousin.

Yeah, I know, it's a free show. But not all free shows are created equal. Let's look this gift horse in the mouth.

If someone told you that you have to put on a magic show for 100 kids an hour from now, you'd probably be able to come up with something about as good as Bald.ini came up with. Okay, you think, here's a map. Oh, I know, I'll tell a story about our friend Skinny the Skeleton traveling the world. Maybe I'll tell the kids that there are only three countries in Scandinavia (who needs Finland, anyways?). Maybe I'll stick an extra plastic thumb on my hand so I can count to six with one hand. Maybe I'll do a bunch of magic tricks in which it will be obvious to anyone over ten exactly how to do them.

Cynicism aside, most of the kids were under ten, and had a great time. So, Great Bald.ini, you really are a magician. Despite being only about one-tenth the magician Matt Roberts is (look him up; he's really good), you gave the kids about a good time. Abracadabra!

Editor (aka Lauren) addition: the period in Bal.dini in order to avoid his cousins finding this post with their search engines ;)

Animal Affair at the Library -- Guest Post by J

For family night this week, instead of the usual puppet show or magician, the Seekonk library brought in animal babies for an "animal affair". There were ducklings, chicks, bunnies, a piglet, and some goat kids.

Aiden was not as enthusiastic about picking up and petting the ducklings or bunnies as I was. He was more interested in another kid's Cars 2 T-shirt. "Hey, that's Francesco Bernoulli. He's a race car. Oh, and that's Grem, a bad guy."

After having our fill of animal petting, we went inside. While Aiden waited to play Pajama Sam 2 on the computer, he and I built a 4 1/2 foot tall "hotel skyscraper" out of some interlocking blocks.

On our way out, we visited the animals one more time. Now, the scene both times was bordering on chaos. You'd expect that there would be some expert or caretaker in charge of the animals. If there was, she was invisible. Instead, one of the exasperated librarians ineffectively tried to reign in the (human) kids, most of whom should not be allowed near non-human kids. One poor little bunny was dropped twice, though luckily he seemed unhurt. (Librarian to kids: "Don't drop the bunny! Put him down nicely! He's squirming because he doesn't want to be held anymore!")

Thank goodness PETA showed up and shut the event down.
++++++++++++++++
Here was the newspaper's take:

The Neighborhood Files
Viewfinder: Animal Craze at the Library
A barnyard full of rabbits, chickens, duck and a few others, took up residence adjacent to the Seekonk Library.

Lucky for the library it was just for the evening on June 27, as part of the library's summer program. This is just one of the family activities scheduled to be held at the Seekonk Library this summer. This traveling farm is the creation of farm owner Tonya Dokulil. She has a team of people who take the farm on the road almost every day of the year. She typically does birthday parties along with visiting schools and camps along with the ccasional library.

Dokulil, understands that the animals just like people love attention and the children did enjoy their time playing with the animals. "We hand raise all the animals on Mistletoe Farm in Winchendon, MA," clarified Dokulil. "We provide an opportunity for the children to learn about the animals and how to properly hold them." The children are not only allowed but encouraged to pick up and hold the animals.

Aiden Brennan on the other hand wanted an up close look at the piglet (followup caption to the previous: Katie Morris was a little cautious and decided that over the fence was a safe bet to pet the piglet.)

first beach

...for KC and the season...

We had an impromptu visit to the beach this afternoon in Wickford after I picked up my art from our show.  The little beach next door to the gallery was calling us on this perfect sunny but breezy afternoon.  I acted as KC's sunshade (with an extra blanket to pull out at any angle) and he was a happy little squinty face in the bright light.  He eventually adjusted his eyes and he wooed the women sitting next to us with what she said were eyes bluer than the ocean ;)

She was one of those friendly ladies where you learn her life stories in a quick minute: from her postpartum room sharing with Connie Chung and their premature babies (who were only missing a small flap on their ears and are now 21 years old and still friends) to her son's easy recovery from the "best type" of leukemia... some heavy conversation made very light by a self-named "beach friend" wearing an orange bikini.

I wish I had a picture of KC's little feet kicking in that sand.  The first moment his smooth little toes hit the sand he immediately kicked them back up, then tentatively he set them back down.  Then his feet were kicking at the sand like he needed to buff his heels with the coarse sand to make his smooth little feet shine.  He had sand between his little piggies and would squirm when I tried to brush it away.

J was walking with Aiden at the edge of the water when he asked if Aiden had spare clothes.  I was 99% sure I had extra clothes back at the car, so we let him run wild ignoring the one percent chance he'd have to ride home naked or somehow covered with KC's blanket...or some other parenting craziness we'd concoct.  But the splashing and romping around in the waves was totally worth it and in the end we had a fresh set of clothes ready to go.  Phew.

Seems like the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon if you ask me... I could watch waves and little toes in the sand all day.

sense fest

Attleboro hosted an Expo for the Senses, which was essentially a bunch of favorite things packed into one afternoon.  The parade was at the end of the day, so they had a checkin for your parade bike.  So we "coat checked" our jungle bike, and cruised the rest of the fest.  They had three kid areas - crafts, zoo animals, big trucks, face painting, cupcake shop - it was really an all-in-one afternoon.  A Brennan's big hits kinda day...  

The fairly cool afternoon was topped off with the much anticipated parade. Aiden, the face painted lion, waited so patiently revving his trike for over twenty minutes.  He was second in line between big kids on bikes and wagons (one decorated like a hippo!)  The Mayor (who appeared to be 12 years old and ready to hop on one of the decorated trikes) kicked it off and I wish the video captured more of the excitement.   Aiden pedaled like a little engine through the whole route being cheered on by the crowd.  I have to say that for this under-stimulated mama, it was thrilling - Yep, it was a thrill to watch him pedal his jungle trike down the middle of the street to people yelling "How cute! Look at him go!"  Part of the time he even had his very own police escort to help push him over the bumpy sewer grates. In the end he earned his first ribbon of participation from the Mayor! (I read a lot about these prize ribbons on parent blogs where kids get celebrated for doing fun things they would've done anyway - and then they expect ribbons after everything...blah blah overanalyze blah - He liked his ribbon and that's all that really mattered)  He was zonked by the time we got to the car from the full on four block sprint on his trike ;)

Aiden loved to point out that the statue was alive!  The giant remote control fire engine was tricky and randomly squirted water.  The face paint lady was so fast and had twitchy face all lioned up in less than two minutes.  The lion king licked the bottom whiskers off pretty quickly but was so careful with his cupcake so he could still be lion faced for his race ;)

Sense Fest from LB on Vimeo.

preview

It's a jungle bike all ready for the town bike parade -

Do a no-rain dance for us so Aiden can pedal his little heart out tomorrow!

Aiden would point out the Lulu gave him the perfect monkey belly headlight for his bike! Thx!

patch

Some big happenings here in Seekonk make it to the paper ;) Here is the article from the Patch:

The Neighborhood Files
Viewfinder: A Trip to the Seashore
Starfish and crabs intrigued families attending a program at the Seekonk Public Library.

Getting up-close and personal with sea crustaceans keep children busy at another well-received program at the Seekonk Public Library. The special guest for the evening Family Night was author, illustrator and marine educator Michael Glaser but the main attraction were contained in a collection of coolers. What appeared were not cold drinks but sea creatures for the children to explore.

The program began with Glaser walking the children through the process of writing a story. He introduced the character a star fish and a rock (really his suitcase). He then created a story line and encouraged the children to add some action and adventure to the rock star story. He also explained the process he went through as he wrote the book "Does Anyone Know Where a Hermit Crab Goes." He explained the writing of the story line and the number of times he made changes. This book has sold through Amazon and shops. He presented a signed copy of the book to the library.

After paitently waiting, the children finally had an opportunity to explore the ocean's bottom. Families from many of the surrounding community's came to join in the fun.

goofs

My goofs in their matching shirts a-gain!

Last time:

http://ababybrennan.blogspot.com/2011/04/matching-cute.html

 Aiden insisted on holding hands - aw...

Ten -- Guest Post by J

As of today, Lauren and I have been together for 10 years.

In that time, we've had two children. We've lived in Virginia, New York, Arizona, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, and are headed back to Virginia. We've gone through 2 different green sofa/loveseat combos and scores of picture frames. Lauren has taken over 30,000 photographs. I've owned 12 guitars. We each got at least one higher degree. We've driven 102,700 miles. Lauren has tried 25 brands of peanut butter, and I've tried 25 brands of hot sauce. We've kept the same archaic box televisions and refused to buy flatscreens. We've had 14 phone numbers between us.

So much has changed, but our love for each other has remained constant. I'm looking forward to the next 10 years.

(No pics from 2001--those were pre-digital camera days--but here are some of us goofing around in 2002:)

Imitating geysers:

brothers

Big and little brothers love to match ;)

Aiden, Jedi Knight -- Guest Post by J

Aiden has never seen a Star Wars movie--he's still too young, even for the first one--but he has a healthy love of Star Wars nonetheless. We do have a Lego Star Wars video game for the Wii, which we sometimes play, but somehow or other he became aware of Star Wars before that.

Aiden's well-versed in Star Wars trivia for a 3-year-old who hasn't seen the movies. He knows that Darth Vader is a bad guy, who used to be a good guy. He also knows that Anakin Skywalker was a good Jedi who then became Darth Vader. He can identify Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca, and stormtroopers.

Aiden and I often have pretend lightsaber duels. Aiden might start by trying to knock me down with Force Push, but if that doesn't work--and if he's being the bad guy--he'll resort to Force Lightning. Aiden is also fond of inventing non-canon force powers, such as "Force Ice Ball" (which freezes me, so I can't parry his lightsaber strikes). Aiden seems to think one acquires force powers by eating. He'll sometime stop a battle and say, "Dad, I need to go into the Force Kitchen and eat some Force Push." He'll then retreat to the dining room, pretend to eat something, and come back with super-charged force powers.

Crescent Park Carousel -- Guest Post by J

East Providence has a 115-year-old carousel, replete with antique horses and an old-fashioned music system. Aiden spontaneously asked to go there today, so off we went.

The Crescent Park Carousel has a brass ring dispenser. Aiden can't reach the rings on his own, so Lauren or I would grab the rings for him. I stood behind his horse, but lucky lightweight mommy got to sit on the horse with him. (The horses have a 200 lb weight limit, so I could sit on one by myself, but not with Aiden.) By the fourth ride, Aiden was getting to be an expert at throwing the rings at the clown-face target.

My pics of the carousel are all too fuzzy (my older model iPhone has a slow shutter speed), but here are some pics of Captain Aiden at a bench designed to look like a boat.

For dinner, we went to DiParma, a local Italian restaurant. Lauren ordered a large pesto pizza (with the goal of taking home lots of leftovers). The kitchen accidentally made the wrong pizza but realized their mistake before bringing it out to us. Rather than tossing the other pizza, they gave us both for the price of one. Lucky for Lauren, the erroneous pizza was a bacon-asiago-chicken delight, even better than her original order.

dad's day!

To my dad, Thanks for all that you do to make my life easier and full of Robot smiles... from hours in the car driving back and forth from Ohio to snapping photos to simply jumping into to help clean for our open houses. I truly appreciate you.

To my babies' dad, These are some lucky boys to have a dad that works hard and concentrates on giving them so much fun, patience, and love. I'm lucky to be your partner in all this craziness and I'll feel even luckier once we're settled into our new chapter in Virginia. On your fourth father's day, thank you...hope you liked your scavenger hunt (from the hunt maker kid!) and the Mr. Potato Head chocolate pancakes.

Fourth:

Dad's Day 2011 from LB on Vimeo.
Third:

Dad's Day 2010 from LB on Vimeo.
Second:

First:

teacher's pics

Mrs. Healey also sent a bunch of pictures that were included in the end of the year slideshow.  

Raking the snow?!  Probably in January

Field Day - June 6, 2011

Pajama Day - February

Bagels with Dad - January 26, 2011

Todd the Cheetah -- Guest Post by J

Aiden regularly sleeps with three animals: Todd the Cheetah, Marchie Bear, and Friend Bear. Other animals and baby dolls rotate in and out, but these three animals are regulars.

Todd is really a leopard, but Aiden decided upon receiving Todd that he would prefer him to a cheetah. And so he is.

Todd is named after the fox from Disney's The Fox and the Hound. At the time we received Todd, year and a half ago, we were reading a book adaptation of that film almost every day.

When putting Aiden to sleep, he sometimes has me face Todd a certain direction, such as toward one of the windows or the door. This is the direct Aiden expects monsters to enter from that night. According to Aiden, Todd's favorite food is monsters, and he eats any monsters that enter Aiden's room while Aiden's sleeping. Todd is lightning fast and can eat any monster, even "spiky ones" that would normally hurt one's mouth. I asked Aiden tonight how many monsters Todd eats per day. Aiden said Todd averages 10 per night, for a total of about 65,000 so far.

Aiden invented this role for Todd long ago, and he doesn't insist on position Todd in any direction anymore. (Aiden also assures me that monsters are just pretend and that he's just having fun.)

last yoga

We went to Aiden's last yoga class before our big move.  It was the first time I whipped out the big camera to record the fun.  I was sad that Aiden's little buddies Luis and Charlie were missing from the crew (which included Anna, Flossy, and Mia), but you get a good idea of the class.

Yogi Tots from LB on Vimeo.

muffins with mom

My dream came true!  After being pretty jealous after grandparent's day and bagels with dad day, I was so excited when the WeeThree classroom hosted a "Take your mom to work day" (aka. Muffins with Mom).  The week before Aiden came out at pickup time very excited to give me his specially decorated sea shell invitation.  He gave me a good ear full of all the works he wanted to show me when I came to work with him and that he would serve me some lemonade first, but only half full... You would guess he was pretty excited, but I think I was genuinely even more excited.  Aiden even said that KC was invited to come too, so that he could learn something new too ;)  There are only so many years when he will be thrilled to bring me to school with him, so I just eat it up.

That morning the boys and I cruised to school for the fun.  I was greeted with matching shell necklaces that Aiden made for us to wear.  Then he showed me his favorite works, which included sand dig matching, ball size stacking, flower pinching, and animal prey reading.  KC cuddled and nursed most of the time, but he did come out to say hi to Aiden's friends.  The work time went by quickly, and then they served us snack.  Aiden carefully poured me some lemonade (he says half full is the key!) and brought a muffin over to his little table.  Then the whole crew got to go out to take a photo by their class tree with their moms!  They have taken a photo in front of that tree every month of the school year and it's so fun to see how much they have changed as the seasons changed (I'll post all those too).

tree