Toys and Far Flung Adventures – Books to Read to a 6-year Old

M-itos’ three favorite books (these are books I read aloud to him, but he followed along as I read asking “where are you?” every once in a while just to make sure where we were on the page – and they all have lots of wonderful pen and ink illustrations):

Far Flung Adventures: Fergus Crane, by Riddell and Stewart (A wonderfully inventive  book about a boy whose father dissapeared on an adventure a long time ago and whose mother makes pastries at a bakery. It involves all kinds of mechanical inventions, a long lost uncle, three talking penguins named Bill, Finn and Jackson, and the Fatefull Voyage Trading Company. Great read-alone also for the 7-9 age. There are three more books in the series, Corby Flood – we’re reading now and M-ito loves it so far – this one with a girl protagonist! And Hugo Pepper. These authors also wrote a terrific fantasy series called The Edge Chronicles – but that’s really for older kids.)

Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins (Another great book about a little girl’s three favorite toys, a stuffed manta ray, a plastic ball, and a stuffed buffalo and their adventures with the girls other toys and household items. It has very funny stories and lovable characters. M-ito actually said this book beat out Star Wars as his favorite story.)

Toy Dance Party, by Emily Jenkins (Part II with a sad and sweet theme of growing up as the girl gets older and, though she still loves her three favorite toys, starts to leave them behind. It may not sound like it but there were laugh-out-loud parts here just as in the first book Toys Go Out. It gave us great things to talk about when were finished.)

Dinos in a Galaxy Far Far Away

“Dadidito, I don’t like dinosaurs so much anymore.” It was an innocent comment made while we were walking to school one morning in the freezing cold. “I like Star Wars more.” We’d been going through three months plus of Star Wars movies and Legos models and books and questions like, “Is Star Wars real? Are Jedi’s real? Is there such a thing as the force?”

My answers, in order, “Could be. Could be. And I like to think so.” All followed up with, “Remember. It’s in a galaxy far, far away.” 

M-ito usually nods at that as if it explained everything. For once I don’t elaborate. Mom-ita watches me sometimes when M-ito asks me questions like this and just laughs when I go into a big big explanation when all M-ito wants is a simple answer. It reminds me of an old joke. A young boy goes up to his father and asks, “Where did I come from?” And the father sighs and says to himself, “I knew this was coming.” So he gets out a thick health text book with and flip charts of the human body with anatomically correct parts and starts to describe the whole process of reproduction. Half an hour later, when he’s finished, he looks at his son and asks, “Did I answer your question?” And his son says, “I thought I was born in Brooklyn.”

So hearing my son say he didn’t like dinosaurs (getting back to the dinos) my heart sank into the floor. I had seen this coming since the summer and fall as he’d switched gears from claw and tooth to light saber  and the the force – my son was moving on. I nodded while we walked in the cold, our cheeks red and our noses frozen. And so the dinosaurs became extinct. Or so I thought. 

Two weeks later we’re at the doctors – M-to’s, not ours – for his annual check-up. The doctor asks him, “Do you still like dinosaurs?” And he tells her without hesitation, “I still want to be a paleontologist.” 

She smiles at him and says, “Oh, good. I’m glad you still like them.”

M-ito looks at me and Mom-ita, both of us slightly surprised, a little confused, and quite possible a little relieved.

Who knows. There are probably dinosaurs in a galaxy far far away.

Star Wars Music

M-ito to his first grade teacher his first day back at school after the inauguration: “Did you know that the music they played for Barak Obama was written by the man who wrote the Star Wars music?” This is what he remembers of the inauguration. Well, the music by John Williams was beautiful and memorable so I’m glad he found something of interest. And I was there to see it with him.

M-ito Obama

They role-played the inauguration at M-ito’s school and M-ito got to play Barack Obama. He spoke the words of the swearing-in and answered questions from the populace.

“Mr. Obama,” his friend Ricardo asked, “What are you going to do about the environment?”

My son paused a moment then said, “I’m going to pick everything up that’s on the ground that’s garbage.” Next question.

We watched the inauguration this afternoon as a family. M-ito with a cold, his nose running, and home from school, Mom-ita shooshing us both as we giggled and poked each other from behind her. I’d come home after only two hours at work so I could watch it with them. It was my duty. It was the place I wanted to be today – with my family. M-ito got bored after the first half hour and did his lego Deathstar while we watched the speeches and the parade. But he remembered the words he’d spoken during his roleplay, when he’d become the president of the United States, just like Barack, and reminded us when Barack’s hand went onto the  Lincoln bible – “I said that,” he said.

I’m going to pick everything up… How can I make the world a better place? How can I be a better father? 

Pick up the garbage and throw it out with the trash.

Make-and-Mend Sunday

“What do I do when I’m not doing legos?” M-ito asks. He’s lying in bed, trying to keep his eyes open and failing, though giving it his all. Mom-ita is on one side and I’m on the other. We’re talking about our make-and-mend day – our Sunday. With snow outside (and me disappointed not to go sledding) we stayed in all day. M-ito had a bit of a cold so we decided to play it safe and do no-thing. This entailed the following some-things (not particularly in any order):

• Working on the “Death Star” lego model that his pop-pop bought him as the big christmas gift of the year. This is an over 3,000 piece model that is taking up a whole corner of our living room as he rummages through the pieces (and constantly asks us to help him find a piece) and the 200 page instruction manual. We figure it ought to take him a good two weeks to finish.
• Watching Animal Planet.
• Wrestling and jumping on the bed.
• Me reading him four chapters of Far-Flung Adventures: of Fergus Crane by Stewart and Riddell (a great read-to and read-along with book for a 6-year old with spectacular pen and ink drawings on most pages).
• Mom-ita reading him Max’s Words by Banks and Kulikov (a terrific picture book about the power of words and story telling).
• Watching the gerbils as I cleaned their cages (the two mommies fought so they’re now in two separate tanks of two mother-daughter pairs) and as they watched him play with his Star Wars lego characters.
• Watching the second half of Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace (we’d watched the first part earlier in the week).
• Watching the Secrets of the Furious Five (a sequel to Kung Fu Panda that we got as a boxed set over the holidays) two times along with learning how to draw Po, checking our Chinese new years and zodiac animals (M-ito is a horse, Mom-ita a tiger and yours truly… an Ox), watching different styles of kung fu based on the animals in the movie – moves modeled by kids, and finally each of us taking a quiz that determined which style of kung fu was most suited to us (M-ito the serpent, Mom-ita and me the crane). The movie, by the way was short at 45 minutes but really excellent and quite a good surprise. It is Po telling five stories, one about each of the furious five and a lesson each learned in order to become a master (courage, patience, etc…). 
• Taking a shower and had a huge meltdown (M-ito, not me this time).
• Eating breakfast and linner (lunch and dinner combined).
• Playing with his Didj (that’s for another column – ugh).

“What do I do when I’m not doing legos?” he asks again, cocking his head to the side, one eye closing. Mom-ita and I list what we remember of the day.

“Oh yeah,” he says and lays his head down on his pillow, Puffy the Puffin, his new favorite stuffed animal, close by his side.

An Aisle Seat

Each movie we go to see I think it will be different, but it’s not. It’s okay. I don’t mind a lot, but I do a little. If I’m being honest with myself -I do. On the other hand I do like to go to movies and it is the only way we get to go. I’m movie starved because I have a six-year old. I’m so starved I salivate at the thought of a good animated film. Okay, okay, I did the same thing before M-ito was born. I like animated films – always have – only now I have someone to see them with. So this is good.

Here’s the deal. We went to see Beverly Hills Chichuaua on my birthday. We watched the first half hour in our seats, with M-ito peeking through my fingers whenever he got scared – which was often. But I really shouldn’t say he got scared. It’s more like he got afraid for the characters (not wanting anything bad to happen to them), not necessarily afraid for himself. My son is very empathetic. He worries about people he comes to care about whether they’re dogs, animated characters, film characters, or real humans. We then get up, say, “excuse me,” to all the people we have to pass by to get from our seats to the aisle, then head towards the exit. We watch the rest of the movie alternating between the space in front of the exit doors and the top of the ramp leading to the seats. There’s a banister along the wall we use for support. I go down on one knee and M-ito sits on my other.

“Do you want to go back to the seats?” I ask.

M-ito shakes his head.

My knees complain but I try not to. I take a few deep breaths and settle in. I see about 80% of the film. I enjoy it. When it’s over, M-ito says he enjoyed it but maybe we should wait to see it on DVD again.

I know the sound bothers him – dolby stereo is great for adults but not for little kids. It overwhelms them and scares them. I can still remember getting the chills when dolby first came out and I watched Alien in a movie theatre in Syosset and heard the tinkling of chains behind me and to the sides just before the Alien took another victim. It scared me as an adult. I know Beverly Hills Chihuaua is not Alien but the sound works just as effectively when an angry dog growls or barks. We all jumped a little in our respective seats. I think the screen is too big – overwhelming and towering. So just to tally things up it’s the screen and the sound and the scary bits worrying about the main characters – the important ones, not the minor ones whom we don’t care about. At least that’s how M-ito explains it to me.

Back at home, we’ve watched Star Wars I, IV, V, and VI about a dozen times each - Clone Wars twice that number of times. M-ito can repeat lines of the movie verbatim.

Yesterday M-ito said, “Can we see Hotel for Dogs?” It’s a new family film that just came out. We saw a preview for it at the movies when we saw Chihuaua.

“Sure,” I say. I’m looking forward to my aisle seat.

I have to poop

Momita and I were both working this morning in Manhattan at my office. I left earlier because I had the earlier start time. I got M-ito dressed and left him at the breakfast table eating corn flakes while Momita ran in to take a shower. I got to work and saw a text message.

“He had to poop at 8am.”

I could picture it. One foot out the door when M-ito said the four words every time-conscious, trying to get your child to school so you can get to work – parent dreads to hear. “I have to poop.”

So Momita gets to work and tells me at a break that, after yelling at each other and crying – after pooping of course because you just can’t rush the poop – M-ito said to her, “Mommi, You cannot always be early in life.”

You cannot always be early in life. Words of wisdom, son, words of wisdom.