French Trash Truck

Jan and Bill gave Julien a french trash truck for his birthday (coming up October 5th!) that they bought in Paris. Julien exclaimed, "I love it. I love it! I LOVE it!"

Jan and Bill's Visit

Jan and Bill visited this weekend. Julien had many, many books read to him, which made him very happy. It was a good visit. Julien particularly enjoyed Jan. Jan and Julien spent a long time looking at a catalogue of train toys-discussing the different characters and the intricacies of various train sets. Julien gave us a nice lecture with drawings about dinosaurs, early mammals, how dinosaurs died off and ending with fossils in the rock (which included a map with Mongolia, where the fossils were, and Indianapolis, where the Children's Museum and Dinosphere are).

BABS Open House

Bloomington Area Birth Services (BABS), an organization that provides natural childbirth and breastfeeding services and education, had an open house the weekend before last. I am now the board vice president (yikes!) and was very involved setting up the event. It went wonderfully, thanks to all the volunteers, etc. Julien loved it. A couple days later he asked "when is the next BABS Open House?" He especially loved "Whak the Lizard," in which you smash a lever with a rubber mallet & the lizard goes flying into the bucket.

joke

Julien: "Little killer whale doesn't know how to say 'person' so he says 'persmuffin!'"

Susi

A couple weekends ago Susi visited with little baby Penny, who is just beginning to crawl, Eliza, and her mom Addie. Julien loved Addie. She read Dick & Jane (one of my moms old books) & sang songs. She even sang a song about a dinosaur! We also visited Susi's cousin who helped start an alternative bookstore called Boxcar Books. We visited his commune, which seemed very well organized. The entire house was built out of recycled materials and they had an amazing garden with pear trees and lots of veggies. It made me think that in a decade we may all need to live like them!!

Bones

Overheard as julien played with a small plastic Stegosaurus skeleton in stretchy goop:
Julien "Pelvis: are we wolf? femur: no. Are we from an eel? plate bone: No. Pelvis: We are bones, femur: yes, we are bones! Others: Right, right bones. pelvis: No, we are fossils. all in agreement: Yes, yes we are fossils!"
A little while later:
Julien:"Mommy?"
Adrienne:"Yes Julien"
J: "My favorite bone is the pelvis. What is your favorite bone?"
A "Pelvis is a good choice, I would have to agree that pelvis would be my favorite."

Yes, he did really say pelvis, femur, etc. and I probably missed some other bones that he had talking too.

The Hunt for Fossils

This weekend we went out to Allen's Creek on Lake Monroe to hunt for fossils. Julien has been very interested in fossils lately. The hike was about 1.5 miles one way. It was a beautiful, although unkempt trail. We could hear wild turkeys & wood peckers as we hiked. Then, as we hiked over the ridge we suddenly heard the sounds of an enormous party. We were a little nervous, but continued on our way. When we got down to the lake and the path opened up on to the shore we saw hundreds of boats in a small cove, celebrating labor day. In some places 5 boats were strung together. But no one was on the shore, so we happily collected fossils. Julien was wiped out by the time we were done and Richard had to carry him half the way back to the car. These photos show Julien exploring the fossils at home.

Building a Fort

I had planned to post some photos of the time my family joined me for a visit to New Orleans when I had first started dating Richard. Even during our short visit the class & racial divides were quite clear. I decided not too. The devastation is too immense.

Julien asked me why police men were in boats rescuing people from roofs. Sometimes he takes in more of the NPR news than I realize. We do not turn on the TV news when he is awake.

The last few days we have had an ongoing project of building a fort (or car, or trolley, or train depending on the game).