Sum. Thin. Else.

the hills are alive
Originally uploaded by Kimmy Crack Corn

He said that to me.

"Mama, you're sum. thin. else."

Um, kettle? You're BLACK!

Indeed.

I am down in the back again. No reason. Just went out on me in the middle of a lesson about the differences between "another" and "an other."

So we watched a lot of videos this afternoon after I got home. Of course I own the collector's edition DVD of the Sound of Music ... the one with interviews with the kids, behind-the-scenes footage, and several different language options. I know the dialogue in this movie so well that I can listen to it in Swahili and still understand.

So anyway, we watched it today and I thought he'd be completely bored. But he is my son! First of all, he was fascinated with the nuns, whom I explained as "Ladies who live and work at the church."

Next, there was the scene with the whistle. Whistle. 'Nuf said.

Just after that, Maria finds a frog in her pocket, throws it, and screams. Twelve times.

Then, there's the gazebo dancing scene with Liesel and Frederich ("Sixteen Going on Seventeen"). We watched the kiss several times.

Another high point was the canoeing event where Maria and the children all fall into the water (while wearing curtains) just as they are about to be introduced to The Baronness Schrader. Ten times they fell.

But that marionette show with The Goatherd Crew. Twenty-two times. And just for future reference, you can make an entire low-fat delicious stir-fry dinner in the time it takes to watch "High on a Hill Stood a Lonely Goatherd ... yodel-lay-dee, yodel-lay-dee, yodel-lay-hee hoo." By the 22nd time you can have dinner cooked and frozen for the next week.

After that we had to get out of the house and go look for apples and throw rocks in the lake. Our excitement could not be contained by these walls.

And speaking of walls ...

Walls are, apparently, very expensive and hard-to-come-by here in the Music City. Not that I'm complaining. It's just, well, it's ridiculous that it costs so much. Just plain ridiculous. I better not get started, but I do have to ask one question: Who are these people who are buying two bedroom, one bath houses with no yards for a quarter of a million dollars? Who are they? I need answers to make me feel better about this whole thing. Or maybe I just need an apartment complex with a nice big pool and fitness center in the meantime. Yes, that might work.

Tomorrow is another "new school day." It's been a bit of a rough, weepy week. He's fine when I pick him up and reports all sorts of things that he's made (like, friends named Sam and suitcases of construction paper and pipe cleaners). And there's lots of, "Today is an old school day. Maybe anunna day we will go to my new school day." It just breaks your heart.

So I better go get in bed so that I can prepare for another day of heartbreak (tomorrow).

His birthday is Sunday. We've had him almost three years. That's impossible, but everyone assures me it's true. So of course, in the tradition of all good moms, I will post my birthday letter (which used to be a monthly thing and has now been reduced by approximately 92% (eleven twelvths).

Love to all,
MoTG