The "Wow" Factor

As some of you may know, we recently made a 20-minute long video history of Aidan's first two years. The intro to the video is based on the Star Wars intro, scrolling text and all — including the theme music.

While I was working on that project, I would do occassional screenings to Renee and Aidan to get some feedback. Aidan would occassionally complain that he didn't want to see the "Baby Aidan" movie. But as soon as the opening blast of the Star Wars theme came through the speakers, Aidan would immeadiately stop whatever it was he was doing and run to the couch and watch. It was pretty funny.

It's been a while since I've seen all three of the original Star Wars movies. I was pretty sure that they would be a little scary for Aidan, but I didn't think that they would be too bad for him. And since I just recently received them on DVD for Christmas, I figured why not....

I was right about the first episode (actually, Episode IV). The opening had Aidan completely in awe. The Imperial Star Destroyer zooming in to capture Princess Leia's ship got this reaction from Aidan: "Whoooooa." That was a completely unsolicited whoa, too, by the way.

In fact, any time a spaceship went zipping by, Aidan was pretty sure to say "whoa." After a while he started asking about the characters. "What's his name, Daddy?" or "Who's that, Daddy?" I'm sure I was beaming with pride. A sort of geeky-pride, but pride nonetheless. Quite over Aidan's head in terms of storyline and such, but not too scary and he loved the special effects.

Over the course of the next several weeks we watched the entire series of the original trilogy and Aidan was always most impressed by the flying spaceships. However, the characters got a little darker, the monsters a little more scary and there were plenty of scenes where Aidan would just say "I don't like this part."

Still, Aidan did try his best to follow along with what was happening. After being introduced to Yoda, Aidan would constantly ask where he was and what he was doing. Another favorite question was "Where the guy in the helmet are?" (Referring, of course, to C3P0.)

Aidan would also ask why everyone was running away from Darth Vader, or who Darth Vader was looking for and why. And of course, he wanted to know what they all were saying, which wasn't always an easy thing to explain.

"Daddy, what's he saying?"

"Well ... um ... he's saying that ... um ... well, he's saying that he's Luke's daddy and that ... well, they should get together and do bad things, but Luke doesn't want to do bad things."

"What's he saying now, Daddy?"

"Um ..."

"What's he going to do, Daddy?"

"Um ..."

Yeah. So, anyway, I'm still looking for some answers to some of Aidan's questions; I have a feeling this is just the beginning of such moments, only I didn't expect this to happen so soon.

That Football Player Looks Like You

The whole family was fighting a cold this weekend, so it was kind of nice to have a whole Sunday dedicated to watching some football games, as none of us were really up for anything more taxing than watching some TV.

During one of the games, the camera cut to one of the women sideline reporters (was it Bonnie Bernstein?) and Aidan said, "Mommy, that football player looks like you!"

A little bit later, they cut back to the same sideline reporter and Aidan starts to say it again, but couldn't quite get it out.

"Mommy, that ... Mommy ... that football ... Mommy that football player ..."

By the time he was ready to say "looks like you," the camera cut to one of the real football players (Jerome Bettis, I think).

"Mommy, that football player looks ... oh. Not that one," Aidan said.

Lala The Tree

We've been at the new house for a little over a year now. One of the first things on our to-do list for the new house was to get a tree to replace the poor dead thing that was in our front yard; it probably died from too much water (current thinking is that there may be a spring under our property).

We talked about getting different kinds of trees, but neither one of us were terribly passionate about anything, nor did we know enough to feel confident in choosing a tree.

So yesterday, the three of us went to the Wildflower Reseach Center to buy ourselves a new tree. We shared with the experts at the Research Center that we probably have poor drainage, etc. and they ended up recommending a Possumhaw.

Once we got it home, it was time to put it in the ground. I enlisted Aidan's help and in no time at all, we had it in the ground.

Later that day, Renee spoke with her dad and he had a great idea. Since the tree is roughly the same height as Aidan, and since he helped put it in the ground, we decided to call it Aidan's tree, which will grow with him. Aidan decided to name it Lala.

Gym Class

Aidan started his first gymnastics class yesterday. It's at a place called The Little Gym and it has all the things one might expect in a gym: high bars, tumbling mats, balance beam, and more.

There's tons of activities, which are all lead by a gymnastics teacher, that help with balance, tumbling, jumping, and strength. Aidan loves it, although he usually likes to do his own thing and doesn't usually follow the group (which is okay for this age group; the next class up wants kids who will follow instruction, as the parents aren't supposed to be involved at that level).

Unfortunately, Aidan suffered his first "sports" injury during a dismount on the high bar. The children aren't allowed to wear shoes or socks while in the gym and Aidan landed on his baby toe. He recognized the injury at first, but was able to shake it off and continue on, never showing any signs that it was bothering him.

However, after class — while trying to put his shoes on — he complained that his toe hurt and that he was "a little sad." A little children's Advil and some ice seemed to help, and by this morning it seems to be all healed up!

The Future is Almost Here

When this (or the idea of it) is eventually combined with this, the future will finally be here, despite the fact that we still don't have flying cars.

When a Blueberry isn't a Blueberry

Well, this is interesting. Check out this survey, sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The funny thing is, what you'll learn from this survey isn't so much about an anomaly of the food industry, but about a trend. For those interested in such things, I would recommend reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

[To borrow from the book, the food industry homogenizes food with lots of "interesting" solutions in order to provide us consistent and uniform food from season to season and in all geographic locations (among other reasons). And then they'll still tell us they are selling us blueberries, even though they are really selling us figs.]

Girl Cheese

The other day I was making lunch for Aidan, only I didn't know what I should make. So, I asked him: "Aidan, what do you want to eat?"

"Grl cheese," he replied.

"Cheese?" I didn't understand. "Grilled Cheese?" I guessed again.

"No," Aidan answered. "Grl cheese." This time he signed it for me, to help me understand. And what did he sign? Girl Cheese.

Yes, girl cheese, which turns out to be grilled cheese, so I was right after all, but I guess I just don't know how to say it properly.

Rethinking the Meaning of Words

As someone who likes to write (which is one reason why I keep this journal), I fancy myself to have at least one quality that other writers have: I like to find the right word for the right situation. And, as many of my friends can attest, I can deconstruct any sentence in a conversation into a double-entendre or intentionally mis-interpret the actual meaning ... mostly because I like to play with words.

To that end, I heard an interesting segment on NPR the other night on the way home. If you are interested in listening to it, follow the link; here's the introductory paragraph:

"Jihad" is one of the few Arabic words used in English. It means "spiritual struggle," but many Muslims have pointed out that "jihad" is almost always used in English in the context of terrorism, even though the actual meaning is broader. Commentator Anisa Mehdi would like to propose a word that could be used instead of "jihad."