Being Kipper, Part 2

A post script to the Kipper story:

I like the notion of Daddy being Kipper and me being Tiger so much that last nigt when I went to bed, I pretended to be Tiger. Instead of a crib, I pretended to be climbing into my "basket". I also got to sleep with one of my doggy slippers since Kipper always sleeps with a slipper when he goes to bed. It's fun to be Tiger.

Eye Guy

One of my birthday gifts was a toy called K'Nex (I omit the initial K and call them simply "nex"). With this toy, you join together various eyes, noses, wheels, and wings to make various types of vehicles/people. When we first got this toy, Daddy constructed a K'Nex person that looks like the picture below and called him "eye guy." I have a sort of mixed relationship with eye guy. Every time we take out the K'Nex, I want Daddy (or Mommy) to make eye guy. I've even made some versions of eye guy myself. On the other hand, I sometimes find eye guy to be a bit menacing and don't want him around. Indeed, when we put the K'Nex away, I try to make sure that all of the eye guys are disassembled before going back into the box.


Eye Guy 

Being Kipper

Kipper the Dog 

Lately, I've been fascinated with Kipper the Dog and his friends. I like everything about Kipper, including the funny way that he talks. For instance, in running a race, I would say "ready, set, go." Kipper says,

Ready...steady...go!

Kipper calls flashlights torches and calls lots of other things funny names.

This morning while I was racing Matchbox cars with Daddy, he said, "ready...steady...go!" I asked Daddy if he was Kipper, and he said that he was and that I was Kipper's friend Tiger. We played at being Kipper until Daddy had to go to work. Daddy can even talk in the Kipper way as well. I like playing Kipper.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This weekend, Daddy and I planted a bunch of vegetables in our garden. We went out in the morning to the garden store and I picked out the plants that I wanted. First on the list was of course, tomatoes. We put these in big pots on the side of the house along with a bunch of special potting mixture. I liked putting the potting mixture into the pots. Next, we bought a pepper plant. Naturally, the plant had to produce peppers in my favorite color, yellow, so we picked one that did this. We planted the pepper plant in a pot as well. We also planted a basil plant. I like the fact the Licorice (who has gone to heaven) liked basil a lot.

Over the course of the winter, we improved a section of mostly dirt near the front of the house. Daddy said it's much easier to turn the soil over during rainy season than during the summer, when the ground gets quite hard. In doing this, Daddy would shovel out large hunks of soil, and then I would use a smaller weeder type thing to break up the dirt clods and smooth things down. At last, we were ready to plant in this new garden space. I picked out pea plants, broccoli, spinach, and chives to plant there. I espeically liked that the pea plants have tendrils to climb up a lattice that Daddy had set up. The bad news for the pea plants is that, a mere one day after planting, snails had eaten two out of the six plants. This got Daddy very busy in applying anti-snail stuff around the edge of the garden.

I like gardening lots and lots.

Birthday Cupcakes at Kindergym

Here are some photos from the cake and candles part of the belated 3rd birthday party I had with my friends on January 29. I got to celebrate twice since I had a family party in PA on my actual birthday (12/30) as well as this later one in my home state of CA. My kid party was at one of my favorite places, Kindergym, so my friends and I got to run around, climb, etc. before cupcake time. We have some video of playtime, but our still photos are only of cupcake time (plus one of me with my piggies-- before bedtime of course since they no longer are allowed in bed with me of night-- as those of you in the know are already aware).

Spring Training

Take me out to the ballgame 
Baseball spring training has recently started, so Daddy and I decided to pull out the batting tee and balls and work on honing my swing. I've made great strides since last year. I can now hit the ball quite nicely off of the tee. In fact, I nearly hit one of the balls out of the yard and into the street or "parking lot" as I like to call it. Daddy and Mommy also recently got me a "B" hat that's the perfect size for me, which I'm wore to my "spring training." Previously, I wore one of Daddy's B hats, but this was really too big for me.

Anyway, I've posted some "baseball cards" here. You'll also find some photos of me in my latest dress-up costume---Pooh, as well as some "posed" shots Mommy took of me in the hall. I like making faces for the camera.

Aidan Morgan, Card Shark

A coda to my earlier story about poker playing. Lately, I've taken to saying,

Poker is my favorite game.

Mommy wonders what sort of an impression the other Mommies and kids will have of both her and me with this pronouncement.

The Heffalump Movie

Mommy has offered to take me to a movie called The Heffalump Movie. It features all of my favorite Pooh characters and is in a real movie theater. I'm not sure I like movie theaters. They're dark and sometimes they have loud noises, neither of which appeal to me. As a result, I've been practicing playing movie theater to build up my courage. This past weekend, I built a Lego movie theater with Daddy. It featured a large screen and lots of seats including a balcony section. Soon it was time for people to watch The Heffalump Movie. For the first seating, I would place Lego blocks on each o the seats and I would say who they were. Sometimes I would ask Daddy who was sitting there. Guests for the first show included all the Pooh characters, Maisy, Tullulah (Maisy's bird friend), and Elmo. Guests that Daddy brought to the show included Phil Mickelson (one of my favorite golfers), Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson (my favorite politician), Richard Brevard Russell (I like his picture in the Lyndon Johnson book), Leland Olds (same story), and Tiger Woods.

For the second show, the guests consisted entirely of yellow Lego blocks, which I said were Tallulah. They were 17 Tallulahs at that show and no room for anyone else. Indeed, even the Tallulahs found the theater to be quite crowded.

A key difficulty in watching the movie is that, at random intervals, I lift the screen from its moorings and it flies away.

House of Cards

One of my favorite pastimes is poker. To play poker, of course, you need chips. I like to get out the chips and distribute neatly stacked piles to each of the players: Daddy, Peaches the stuffed bunny, The Bears, and myself. Then it's time to play. I know two poker variations, a game called "which is biggest" and a game called "which is smallest". Somehow, I prefer which is smallest. It's almost time to deal, but first Daddy has to remove the 5s from the deck and give these to me. "5" is my number and I like to have them all. Next, it's time to deal. Each person gets one card turned face up. Daddy then asks me,

Which is smallest?

Usually, I offer a random guess which we must then verify by counting backwards. Daddy starts at 10 and we count backwards together. Each time we hit a number where someone has a card of that number on the table, we turn it face down. When there's only one card left face-up, we know who the winner is. The losers then have to pay the winner one chip each.

We continue like this for a few rounds and then it's time for a building break. During this phase of the poker game, Daddy and I build a house of cards. Daddy sets up the basic structure and then I add to it. Daddy says I'm really good at adding on cards in building the house. After a little while a "breeze" kicks up. The breeze is really me blowing on the cards. It doesn't take much of a breeze---a zephyr really---for the house of cards to fall down and force us to rebuild.

Poker is fun!

Selective hearing

Sometimes Mommy and Daddy ask me to do things that I don't want to do. For instance, when I want to play with toys, Mommy and Daddy wil insist that I get dressed or take a bathroom break. Fortunately, I've learned a new tactic to deal with these unpleasant situations. As long as I don't "hear" what they're saying, I clearly don't have to follow their requests. The trick is to selectively "hear" stuff. If they offer something good like "do you want to play with toys with Mommy and Daddy" my hearing is very keen. Offering something bad like "it's time to get dressed" calls for the selective hearing function.

Somehow, Mommy and Daddy don't like this strategy.

Expanding on the restroom art

Today I expanded on the Daddy's restroom sign art (mentioned in the last post). I added lots of doorknobs so people can go in. Then I added a second figure next to the lady in the circle and the man in the circle because I really like the bathrooms that are shared by both sexes. (These usually have URINALS, which I do not get to use in Mommy-only bathrooms.) Finally, I added out of order signs on top of the bathroom symbols. (I was strongly effected by some out of order bathrooms at the park recently.)

Comments

You will notice I've gone to a new commenting program. The earlier one had many problems and recently decided to stop saving old comments from past posts. That was enough to get me to switch.

Shapes and Their Meanings

The other day, Daddy and I were painting together at my easel. Daddy decided to paint some shapes and asked what shape I'd like to see. I said, "Triangle." So Daddy painted the outline large blue triangle. I immediately connected this with another example of a big blue triangle---the official sign for the Daddy bathroom in stores and restaurants. I asked Daddy to paint the little person who stands in the center of this sign.

Next, I asked for a circle. This, of course, is the symbol for the Mommy bathroom, so I asked Daddy to draw the stick lady who lives in the center of this symbol as well.

Hugs: A Taxonomy

I really like hugs, especially at night. Hugs come in several varieties so I thought I would clue you in about the differences:

1. Straight hug: A straight hug is when Mommy or Daddy picks me up and holds me to his or her chest while standing straight up. I put my arms around their shoulders and rest my head there as well.

2. Sandwich: A sandwich is a straight hug where both parents squish me in the middle so that I am the "cheese" in the hug sandwich. Mommy and Daddy are the bread.

3. Regular hug: This is a hug where both I and the hugger remain seated.

4. Hug guys: This is a Daddy thing where I'm squirming around and the "hug guys" come and scoop me up for a quick hug.

5. Pancake: This is a hug where I'm lying on the floor and (typically) Daddy semi-squishes me.

I like hugs. I'm less of a big fan of kisses however.

Aidan Morgan, Oenophile Part 2

I went to an art class today and produced all manner of master works. Below is a picture I'm quite proud of. I chose the "J" and "m" at random, but Mommy thought that it produced a nice effect of pairing Daddy's initials with the wine corks.
 

Froggytime Theatre

One of my most popular Christmas gifts came from Auntie Max. She gave me a theater with a couple of hand puppets consiting of a king an queen froggy. I have adapted this arrangement into the entertainment extravaganza called "Froggytime Theatre". Here's what I like to do:

I set up the stage and the actors first. The usual acting troupe consists of the two froggies, Piggy, and Kasey the Kinderbot. Next, I set up the audience. Sometimes the audience consists of Thomas the Train and all his friends. Other times, the stuffed animals come to watch the show. When the audience is all seated, the curtain goes up and the show begins. I like to roll up the curtain onto a wooden dowel in a way that I saw was done at a theatre in Chuck E. Cheese. I like to request various performances. There are certain regular parts of the show and then some ad-libbing as well.

One of the regular features is a theatrical rendering of the sone "James Morrison". King Froggy plays the role of James, Queen Froggy is his mother, while Piggy plays the role of King John in the song. King Froggy is a real ham---when Daddy does this song, King Froggy sings with a deep bass voice, tones of vibrato, trilled "r's" and a kind of over the top English accent. Queen Froggy is an alto also with tons of vibrato. Piggy uses his usual singing voice.

Another regular feature is a solo act by Kasey the Kinderbot. Kasey knows how to sing "Hokey Pokey" all by himself. The audience likes to dance as Kasey sings.

Finally, the whole audience, including master of ceremonies Aidan, like to sing a medley of Mozart consisting of "Twinkle, twinkle" and "The ABC Song."

The show closes with an old Bugs Bunny number performed by the entire troupe. They sing:

O we're the boys of the chorus
We hope you liked the show
We know you're rooting for us
But now we have to go!

Fore!

One of the best things about our vacation house is that our room literally had a golf course as its back yard. I could see three bunkers from outside the big windows in the room. Naturally, being surrounded by golf, I had to get out and play some myself. Daddy and I putted, hit some shots at the driving range, and, best of all, hit some sand shots out of a bunker. I like blasting the sand in the air as I try to get a ball out of the bunker. Below are three photos of some of my outstanding putting.

A selection of photos of all kinds can be found here.


 


 


 

Mommy's Massage

When we were at the vacation house, Daddy and I went out to play golf while Mommy got something called a massage. Daddy told me about this, so I wondered if Mommy was getting a beard too. I asked Daddy and he explained that Mommy was getting a massage and not a beard. Since beards often go with massages, I persisted in wondering if she would get one of these too. I think Mommy would look quite funny with a massage and a beard. Eventually, Daddy figured out that I thought a massage was a moustache, but that these two things are very different. Mommy's massage featured lots of hot and cold rocks on her. She seemed to like being rubbed with rocks quite a bit. I can understand that since I like to play in piles of rocks myself.

Aidan Morgan, Oenophile

Perhaps inspired by their recent viewing of the film Sideways, the family went to a vacation house in wine country for a mini vacation. When we first arrived, we stopped in Trefethen Winery, always a favorite, and sampled many of their wines. Trefethen is an interesting place in that it has a lovely garden area where I can run around. In addition, it's got lots of old pieces of farm equipment. I liked to pretend to be a horsie pulling the many pieces of equipment. I pulled two types of harrows and two types of plows as well. I'm not a very obedient horsie however. Daddy would tell me he wanted to plow his field going one way and I would inevitably go in the other direction. Eventually Daddy caught on and started to tell me to go the opposite way from where he really wanted to go.

I also got to sniff lots of different wines. Of course, my favorite are the "yellow" wines---riesling and chardonnay. I also liked to sniff lots of different types of red wines too. Daddy would ask me what the wines smelled like. He told me there were cards that indicated that they had scents like blackberry, currant, or cassis (whatever that is). When I smelled, I told him what they smelled like to me:

They smell like wine!

I offered after each sniff. Still, I liked being part of the whole wine tasting process. After our visit, we went on to the vacation house for more adventures, which I'll tell you about in the next installment.

Happy Birthday

One of my favorite pleasantries that work well in any conversation is "happy birthday." For instance,

Aidan: Time to wake up.
Daddy: Good morning.
Aidan: It's morning time. Let's check if the sun is out.
Daddy (opening the shade): It is.
Aidan: How are you doing today?
Daddy: I'm doing well. How are you doing Aidan?
Aidan: Um. Happy Birthday!

This past Saturday Mommy invited many of my friends to Kindergym to celebrate my third birthday. We baked cupcakes together the day before (chocolate ones, of course) so that my friends and I could enjoy that essential birthday ingredient, cake. The theme of my birthday party was Pooh and his friends. Since I'm a bouncy guy, bouncing featured prominently in our "advertisements" for the party. The birthday cupcakes also had the Pooh theme as well. Each was decorated with a candy version of Pooh's face. While I liked the Pooh face, I indicated to Mommy ahead of time that I would not be eating it (although I happily ate the cupcakes) since I don't like to eat my friends. I think, in general, not eating one's friends is a good rule.

We got to Kindergym and set up the party area. Mommy made a big banner saying "Happy Birthday Aidan!" featuring Pooh characters. Daddy blew up a bunch of balloons using a helium balloon machine. Unlike the balloon machines in stores, which are loud, this balloon machine was quiet, so it made me a lot less nervous.

Next, we all went over to the Kindergym for a session of bouncing. It was nice to bounce around with my friends. While they all liked bouncing, doinking, which I find to be really fun, is, apparently, an acquired taste for some of them. For example, there is a little sliding board in the Kindergym. I liked to slide down the slide and "doink" into people at the foot of the slide. I also like to wait at the bottom and be doinked by others coming down. I asked my friend Brandon if he liked to be doinked. He said, politely, "No thank you." He also didn't want to doink me either.

Another highlight for me is spinning. There is a tire swing in the Kindergym. I liked to lie across the big rubbery tire on my tummy while Daddy spun me round and round. This is fun, but leaves me very dizzy. Of course, dizzy is fun too. Lots of my friends like spinning also and, at times, I had to wait my turn to spin on the swing.

After that, we went to the party room and ate sandwiches and cake. We also got to drink lemonade, one of my favorite drinks, from little juice boxes. I had three candles on my cupcake and, after a couple of tries, I blew them all out.

"Happy birthday" everyone said.

I enjoyed my party "lots and lots" and, at the end, I asked Mommy if we could go back to Kindergym the next day to have another birthday party for me.