(no subject)
No, it did not involve Super-Glue. Thankfully.
But since Jason was at MAGFest, I decided Rob and I should go have some fun too. So we started with his usual TKD class, then went over to Clay Cafe and painted some pottery. Rob chose a salad plate, which he decorated in abstract swashes of avocado green and various shades of brown, with black dots accenting the rim. I picked an ice cream dish (as it was called on the shelf - the involce called it a "dipping bowl." Presumably, it could be used for either without breaking it, and one might even dip things in ice cream, or dip ice cream in things). Going to be interesting to see how they turn out.
Then to the playground, because it was a lovely day. I got about 50 minutes of stepping in (there's a raised wooden ledge around the play area - while Rob is playing I step up and down for exercise), and some arm exercise pushing Rob and another boy on the tire swing. Rob ran around and played like a Happy Little Boy, until a conflict with another set of kids over the tire swing led to him being taken home with a tantrum. Despite dire threats to my life and well-being, as well as him informing me that I had lost all TV and video games for my LIFETIME and would get NO SUSHI for dinner, he was placed in his room for a while. When he quieted down and apologized, he was let out, and helped me do dishes. (I wash, he dries, I put away - he can't reach the dish and glass cabinets yet.)
We arrived at dinner twenty minutes before our reservation (I like to make reservations ahead at Maneki Neko, as then you're guaranteed a seat at the sushi bar, which is much more fun). I never can safely predict how crowded 66 and 7 are going to be, so I do tend to leave early. They were pretty empty, it being 5:40, so they seated us anyway. Rob ordered a bento box with tonkatsu and California roll (he was surprised to find out that Katsucon means Pork Cutlet Con...). Ate the miso soup, the roll, a piece of broccoli, some of the rice, about a third of the cutlet, and some of my kampyo roll and veggies from my soup (he loved the little mushrooms). (The rest he's saving for tomorrow. I have been granted the privilege of eating the salad later, though I did get him to eat the broccoli.) I had the sansai udon (mountain vegetables with noodles in broth, very tasty) and a kampyo maki. The placemats there show the process of sake making - I had to read them aloud to Rob, so now he theoretically knows how to make sake, given the ingredients, equipment and several large burly assistants. And a lot more space than we have. The decor in that restaurant is pretty cute - lots of little maneki nekos - but I could've done without the sign that shows a roll of orange and white sushi captioned, "They Found Nemo." Especially since it was placed right next to a tank with a live clownfish. Mind you, the chef reassured Robbie (and me) that clownfish are not known to be particularly tasty, and are not used in any sushi he knows of. The live clownfish, however, was hiding behind its filter - I wonder if anyone told it?
Came home, played CandyLand Rob-style. This involves the following changes to standard game play:
1. The pieces are blue and yellow penguin erasers.
2. The "dice" are a plastic spider, two tiny Legos, a brown penguin eraser, a small empty paint container, and a mini-Slinky. You roll these, and Robert interprets the results through some gift of augury possessed only by himself. It's funny how often the interpretation is in his favor, mind.
3. The pictures of candy and ice cream on the board are powerups. Their purpose and use is, again, interpreted by Robert.
4. When your penguin passes Lord Licorice, you must have a long, drawn-out and involved battle with him in the living room, involving many sound effects and much flailing of limbs. Then you throw pretend licorice at him.
5. The game ends when Rob gets bored with it. Generally right after he's vanquished Lord Licorice.
Now, I think it is time for bath and stories. Yesterday, we read Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like (spoiler: everyone doesn't), then Rain Player, about a Mayan boy who challenges Chac, God of rain, to pok-a-tok (the get-the-ball-through-the-stone-rings game), Epossamundas Saves the Day (in which a possum saves his family from a Big, Ugly, Mean Louisiana Snapping Turtle via strategic use of sody sallyraytus, also known as baking soda), and The Bee-Man of Orn, which is a charming tale I wish I had found when I was small, involving a man who lives in a giant beehive of a hut, surrounded by bees, living on honey and food traded for with honey, who is quite happy until a sorcerer tells him that he has been magically transformed from something else, and then goes out (a traveling hive on his back) on a quest to find what he was before...I really like my son's school library. They have such neat stuff.
But since Jason was at MAGFest, I decided Rob and I should go have some fun too. So we started with his usual TKD class, then went over to Clay Cafe and painted some pottery. Rob chose a salad plate, which he decorated in abstract swashes of avocado green and various shades of brown, with black dots accenting the rim. I picked an ice cream dish (as it was called on the shelf - the involce called it a "dipping bowl." Presumably, it could be used for either without breaking it, and one might even dip things in ice cream, or dip ice cream in things). Going to be interesting to see how they turn out.
Then to the playground, because it was a lovely day. I got about 50 minutes of stepping in (there's a raised wooden ledge around the play area - while Rob is playing I step up and down for exercise), and some arm exercise pushing Rob and another boy on the tire swing. Rob ran around and played like a Happy Little Boy, until a conflict with another set of kids over the tire swing led to him being taken home with a tantrum. Despite dire threats to my life and well-being, as well as him informing me that I had lost all TV and video games for my LIFETIME and would get NO SUSHI for dinner, he was placed in his room for a while. When he quieted down and apologized, he was let out, and helped me do dishes. (I wash, he dries, I put away - he can't reach the dish and glass cabinets yet.)
We arrived at dinner twenty minutes before our reservation (I like to make reservations ahead at Maneki Neko, as then you're guaranteed a seat at the sushi bar, which is much more fun). I never can safely predict how crowded 66 and 7 are going to be, so I do tend to leave early. They were pretty empty, it being 5:40, so they seated us anyway. Rob ordered a bento box with tonkatsu and California roll (he was surprised to find out that Katsucon means Pork Cutlet Con...). Ate the miso soup, the roll, a piece of broccoli, some of the rice, about a third of the cutlet, and some of my kampyo roll and veggies from my soup (he loved the little mushrooms). (The rest he's saving for tomorrow. I have been granted the privilege of eating the salad later, though I did get him to eat the broccoli.) I had the sansai udon (mountain vegetables with noodles in broth, very tasty) and a kampyo maki. The placemats there show the process of sake making - I had to read them aloud to Rob, so now he theoretically knows how to make sake, given the ingredients, equipment and several large burly assistants. And a lot more space than we have. The decor in that restaurant is pretty cute - lots of little maneki nekos - but I could've done without the sign that shows a roll of orange and white sushi captioned, "They Found Nemo." Especially since it was placed right next to a tank with a live clownfish. Mind you, the chef reassured Robbie (and me) that clownfish are not known to be particularly tasty, and are not used in any sushi he knows of. The live clownfish, however, was hiding behind its filter - I wonder if anyone told it?
Came home, played CandyLand Rob-style. This involves the following changes to standard game play:
1. The pieces are blue and yellow penguin erasers.
2. The "dice" are a plastic spider, two tiny Legos, a brown penguin eraser, a small empty paint container, and a mini-Slinky. You roll these, and Robert interprets the results through some gift of augury possessed only by himself. It's funny how often the interpretation is in his favor, mind.
3. The pictures of candy and ice cream on the board are powerups. Their purpose and use is, again, interpreted by Robert.
4. When your penguin passes Lord Licorice, you must have a long, drawn-out and involved battle with him in the living room, involving many sound effects and much flailing of limbs. Then you throw pretend licorice at him.
5. The game ends when Rob gets bored with it. Generally right after he's vanquished Lord Licorice.
Now, I think it is time for bath and stories. Yesterday, we read Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like (spoiler: everyone doesn't), then Rain Player, about a Mayan boy who challenges Chac, God of rain, to pok-a-tok (the get-the-ball-through-the-stone-rings game), Epossamundas Saves the Day (in which a possum saves his family from a Big, Ugly, Mean Louisiana Snapping Turtle via strategic use of sody sallyraytus, also known as baking soda), and The Bee-Man of Orn, which is a charming tale I wish I had found when I was small, involving a man who lives in a giant beehive of a hut, surrounded by bees, living on honey and food traded for with honey, who is quite happy until a sorcerer tells him that he has been magically transformed from something else, and then goes out (a traveling hive on his back) on a quest to find what he was before...I really like my son's school library. They have such neat stuff.