Symbolism?

Alex is very into "elements" and "symbols". I think it's due to the cartoons he watches - elements from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and symbols from superhero stuff. This morning before school he brought me a piece of paper with "his symbols" on it. It had four line drawings starting with a heart on top, a swirl below it, then a lightning bolt and finally, a star. Catchy little logo, I thought, maybe he's going to be artistic like his Uncle Brad.

"Do you know what they stand for, Mom?" Um, no. What? "Love, mind control, power and plans." I was pretty much speechless with that bit of news. Mind control? Really? What kind of TV is Art letting him watch? I thought America's Funniest Home Videos was the worst. Now the child is plotting world domination through mind control. I'm just hoping he remembers his good ol' mom when he's a global tyrant.

Speaking of which, I went to an elegant and lovely Mother's Day Tea at the school on Friday. The children sang "What a Wonderful World" for us, told us one at a time why their mom was special, then served us lemonade and cookies. They weren't even allowed to eat until the moms were gone. (And I thought they showed particular good grace in not rushing us out the door.) I'll try to figure out how to post the video here. I got the camera for Christmas but haven't investigated how to get the movies out of the camera. It was impressive. They did a bang up job with the table settings. Lots of pink and flowers were in evidence. Each place had a decorated frame with your child's picture, a card with a poem composed in your honor and a gift they made in art. (I got a necklace made of clay and it matched what I was wearing.)

Speaking of what I wore, the night before, teasing Alex, I asked what I should wear for the tea. Alex thought for a minute. "Prettier, but it's not the prom." So, something between business casual and semi-formal? I went with my floral Easter dress and a cardigan. He was fine with that. He thought I should have a corsage but I explained with my allergies it might just kill me. Thankfully, he dropped the idea.

Chef Crabby

One day during Spring Break Alex and I went to Greenville to the Children's Museum. It was great, but crowded. He loves that place. We also went to the art museum next door. Less love from Alex, but I found out that he has a deep affinity for modern art. Alas, they do not let you touch the artwork. They were very definite about it, too. Especially Lee Krasnick's, even if you must find out how the big glops of paint feel. And, they made me carry the paper kite he made at the Children's Museum. Apparently he did not look trustworthy with a kite in that wide open exhibit space.

On the way home in traffic we pulled up behind an SUV with a news crew inside. I pointed it out to Alex. He demanded that I pull up beside them so we could see who it was. After several blocks we were next to them. I did not puposely chase them down, I swear. Disappointingly, the driver was not a recognizable celebrity. He was in a t-shirt and baseball hat. I told Alex that he must be a cameraman or something. From the back seat, with a big sigh, he said, "Oh, I see like 15 camerman every day." Really? "Yeah, down in my secret lair. Crabby has a cooking show."

So not only is there a secret lair below our house (oops - let that cat out of the bag!) with a top-secret science lab, his invisible crab is also filming cooking shows there. My life is even stranger than I knew! I suppose this is a natural progression for Crabby since he was such a stellar Subway employee last year. Perhaps that inspired him to continue in the culinary arts. Now if I could only get him to cook dinner for us. Maybe if we went vegetarian?

Worldwide Pants

As we walked into the house Saturday afternoon I mentioned that there was something on his pants. From there the conversation went into overdrive:

Alex: I wish I didn't have to wear pants.
Me: But then everyone would see your underpants.
Alex: But if EVERYONE didn't wear pants ...
Me: Oh.
Alex: Revenge, Earth, revenge!

This last was uttered in the style of a Shakespearean actor, complete with fist shaking at the sky. He then went on to say that the Earth (the planet itself) should have to wear pants to see how it felt. Then, he mused that Earth pants might trap all the people who lived underneath them. Poor pants people. Perhaps it would just be the southern hemisphere.

Whistler's Mother

Alex has been trying to whistle for months. His younger cousin Will learned how a couple of months ago and Alex was horrified that a 4-year-old could do it when he couldn't. He solicited advice from Papa, who taught Will. That helped some. I wasn't much help. I could show him how I did it, but couldn't really explain it to him. Somehow on his own at school he managed to pick it up. That was about a month ago.

I now hear whistling in my sleep. Literally! He sometimes whistles when he wakes up in the wee hours (5:47 a.m. recently). He is whistling at this very moment while I type and while he is home sick [written 5/2/11] on the couch, between sips of water and nibbles of crackers. He whistles at people, birds, dogs and anything else he can think of. Occasionally he whistles to answer questions. I think I've broken him of that - I explained (okay, not very calmly)that we humans can't understand whistles and we must SPEAK to each other.

I blame Star Wars. Specifically, R2D2.