Note To Future Self

Well, duh. With all this talk of big questions, I forgot that we recently checked out Wolf Erlbruch’s The Big Question.

(image from Amazon, of all things)

We’re big fans Herr Professor Erlbruch (and there’s more to come). The phrase that comes to mind is “pitch-perfect.” Not frenetic attempts to emulate kid’s thinking, but simple little stories with room for both kids and adults to ponder a bit.

Perhaps the best element of this book is the space in back to write your own answers to the big question.

In a similar vein is Sara O’Leary’s Where You Came From.

(image courtesy the publisher’s site)

We featured Sara’s previous book When You Were Small a few months ago. The conceit of this book is the same, the art remains lovely (thanks to Julie Morstad). At the risk of gross simplification, Where You Came From is the baby sister of When You Were Small — sweeter and a bit less jokey. Nice.

(image from Amazon UK)

We recently borrowed Alex Higlett’s Egg and Bird.** On first blush it seems like the usual repetitive inanity accompanied by pleasant but underwhelming sketch art. But the conclusion is a pure metaphysical cliffhanger sure to mess with kids’ heads. I love it!

** I understand your keen disappointment at not having a credit-card-stealing Powell’s link. Apparently, this book is only available in righteous Queen-fearing countries. Uh, which means none of you will be able to borrow the book and understand what I’m on about. Bugger.

I’ve always struggled with the Big Questions of life. Come to find out I’ve been asking the wrong question.

The Big Question is:

• Are there plums today?

And if you allow two more questions into your cosmology:

• Will there be plums tomorrow?
• Why not?

We’ve moved into a dancing phase, where dancing is loosely defined as one of two activities:

• A rhythmic (pendulonic?) swiveling at the waist with arms bent at the elbows.
• A “happy feet” tap-dancing which also indicates extreme happiness.

Come to thing of it, that’s the extent of my own dance repertoire. She’s stealing my moves!

In any case, I’ve posted a short movie from today’s dance proceedings. It’s two and a bit megs, and let’s be honest, is probably of limited interest unless you share genetic material with the moppet. The unsteady camera work is because the cameraman is doing a little “happy feet” dancing of his own. The soundtrack is “Satellite Skin” from the delightful Modest Mouse EP “No One’s First and You’re Next”. Yes, really. I’m pretty sure it’s not the part with the swearing.

So far musical education has been mixed, hampered in no small part by dad’s sub-par taste in music. Here are the hits and misses, as indicated solely by the presence or absence of dancing.

Hits:

• Monk
• Flaming Lips
• Guns N Roses
• Morphine
• Elvis Costello with the Attractions and/or Imposters
• New sold-out Modest Mouse

Misses:

• Coltrane
• solo Elvis Costello
• Old keepin it real Modest Mouse

Did you get everything you asked for?

Other than the fact they were taken on Christmas day, I can recall absolutely nothing about these photos.

It couldn’t have been important.

Almost stepping on a seal is so 2009.

This year the cool kids are stumbling over slumbering sea lions.

No bean sprouts were threatened in the creation of this blog post.

Just a quick update from down south. For once in our lives, we’ve decided to try the stay-in-one-place-with-baby style vacation. We’ve rented a “bach” (say “batch” read “beach house”) on the coast south of Dunedin for a couple of weeks and we’re just chillin’.

If anything exciting happens, we’ll let you know … after we’ve had a bit of a nap.

Okay, we’ve got swimsuits in case it’s nice and down jackets if it’s not, running shoes in case we make any new year’s resolutions, water and snacks for the road, and…

little girl, where’s your other shoe?

oh. here it is.

in the kitchen cupboard. of course.

Time to hit the trails, pardner.

We have a few of these Arum (Aruu? Ari?) in our garden. Anyone care to help with identification?

p.s. Yes, they’re rather poisonous. We’ll collect all the berries if (when) they come up.