April 23, 2003 - 2:09 p.m.

My Young Performers

First of all, can I just point out that I am STILL taking ibuprofen? This is the fifth day straight in which I have needed to medicate myself in order to do the little things in life like eat, sleep, yawn, and go about my business! Granted today the pain isn't nearly as bad, but still there. Sheesh. Okay, enough self-pity for today!

It is yet another cloudy, gross day here, so the kids and I are cooped up inside. We had a playdate scheduled, but the other family had to cancel due to one child being sick. Luckily for me, the kids have been very good today. I organized a painting project which involved rolling toy cars and trucks of varying sizes through paint and then making tracks with them on paper. Kids love this sort of thing, because you are telling them to do the very things they often get in trouble for (albeit in a controlled setting). "You mean you actually want me to get paint on my toy? Wow, you're awesome!" :)

The rest of the day they have pretty much devoted to creating, rehearsing, and set designing for a puppet show they want to put on for me and their parents. They have kept me out of a lot of the process, which is nice and also curte, but from what I can tell it is an offshoot of The Wizard of Oz. It involves several animals who go to a wizard for help and he messes up while trying to cast his spell. It promises to be pretty entertaining, I think. They worked out the plot and lines and also spent a good deal of time making paper backdrops for the various scenes. I am truly impressed. I have mentioned the puppet show idea on a couple of occasions and was greeted with little enthusiasm, so I confess that I am a bit bitter that now they are so excited. However, I can't really be irritated when they have kept themselves happily occupied for the bulk of the day with almost no interference for me. Go kids! :)

today's project:car tracks paintings and puppet show prep

musing about: what this puppet play will actually be like

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