There was a giant jumping pillow, twenty by forty feet of inflated, bouncing fun, an outdoor kitchen a grounded boat in a field, a crooked house and many other things adding up to a large amount of fun for everyone, including the adults. We had a lunch with birthday cupcakes for dessert and then we went around the corner and to end the party (which had been happening in rather chilly mid-forties weather) there was a fire pit roaring with sticks from the woods behind it and bags of marshmallows for toasting. Such a great ending to the party.
As we left, the birthday boy gave everyone favors. His mother had gone to a scrap exchange and put lots of things in a bag for each child. There was a note on the bags that said, "Amos loves art. Here are some things for you to do some art projects with." Every bag was different and my daughter had a hard time picking hers.
Now I've heard of these "scrap exchanges" before. I recognized the name, but I had no idea what it was. I have a much better idea now. There were bits and bobs, odds and ends in these bags from stickers to yarn to architectural diagrams on vellum to newspaper. There were shells and buttons and more than I can remember now.
Once again, I am doing my best to not look up "What is a scrap exchange" on Google until I get done writing this. But regardless of if my hunch is right or wrong, I am suddenly much more interested in these scrap exchange things.
Back to the bags. I got home and noticed something that rang a long distance bell from far off in time in the back of my head when I saw it. It was a little strip of paper that had been cut from a longer strip with colored bars in the pattern of a keyboard. I remembered I had had something like this when I was first learning to play the piano. How strange.
You would lay this long strip on the back of the keys and you could "read music" by colors. I remember it was somehow magic that I could read how to play a song from some colors on a sheet of paper.
The paper looked old too. As I looked more closely, sure enough, the piece that was in my daughter's packet happened to be the section that had the copyright and company information on it. This little yellowing sheet was from 1960. And someone had cut it up and shared it. And it had found its way to my house and I had remembered it.
The Big Boy Update: Diaper. He couldn't say, "diaper" when he first started talking. What he said sounded like, "bah-poo" and we picked up on it and we've been calling it that ever since. Sometimes, we even call it that to his sister. He's in underwear during the days now, but at night he gets put back in a bahpoo for overnight. Yesterday I said we needed to get ready for bed and put on a bahpoo and he said, "I need a diaper." I asked him what he said and he repeated himself, very clearly pronouncing the word diaper. Maybe he got tired of our baby talk.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Willing to try out words. She know what to do when you say, "Can you say aSpecificWord?" If she knows the word, and she's not otherwise distracted, she'll say it for you. If she doesn't know the word but if you repeat it several times she'll sometimes even try it. I got her to say "tractor" today this way. She also can say her brother's name. It's a pronunciation you wouldn't understand unless you knew what she was trying to say, but it's a start. She will attempt her name, but it doesn't sound remotely close at this point.
Fitness Update: Since I'm not doing much for the next three days during the Keratin Complex period where I can't wash, wet or sweat through my hair this is only related to exercising. My thumb is still bothering me from when I injured it while skiing. I thought it was a sprain, and I think it still is, but it's taking much longer to recover than I would have expected. I don't know if I should try to move it less or work it more or just treat it as normal.
Someone Once Said: I can resist anything, except temptation
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