Deathly Hallows part 2

By Jonathan

"It all ends" is the tag line, and it does. It may seem sad, except for the fact that it ends in a spectacular way. I have never seen a better end to a series of movies (with the possible exception of Lord of the Rings).

In comparing it to the book, I can honestly say that it's as good, if not a slightly better experience. It tightens up the plot some, better explains some parts that were vague and visually creates the work in a way that the book couldn't. In addition to all that, it was wonderfully directly, fantastically shot, and had superb acting by everyone. The movie had no glaring weak points anywhere.

Seeing it in the theater on opening night was without a doubt the best way to have seen it. The showing we went to was about 1am in the morning and the theater was packed, the lobby buzzing with lines 20 people deep to all the concessions. Death Eaters, Gryffindors, and house elves wandered around everywhere. The HP passion was thick in the air and every scene was felt to the heart by everyone. It short, it was a wonderful show.

(written at 4am 'cause I had to share)

Fourth of July... 10 days later

Smokers were the big hit... and running through the smoke was the best part.

All the neighbors' grandkids came to see the fireworks.  Two girls were in the grass, staying far away.  The 8 year-old with the lighter helped Jonathan light the fuse on this one.  And note Osher in the background.  He stayed the whole time, no doubt "protecting" us.

YAY SMOKE!!!!

Run Xander run!

Ah, the energy of the young.

Example of a little, non-smoker firework.

Erin watching Jonathan light the Roman candle.  Ari watching her shoulder.

Utterly passed out.  Note the drool spot on her white shirt!  (Erin's a good sport.)

After Xander went to bed, Jonathan and Tim had a fencing competition.

Playing with the exposure so the light shows up in patterns of their choosing.

Tim making an "M" for my name.

Hidden by the light.

And last but not least, some of the traces left in the sky.

Two and a half year-old trust

The last lines of The Cat in the Hat are something like:

[the mother asks]

"Did you have any fun?
Tell me, what did you do?

And Sally and I did not know
What to say.
Should we tell her,
The things that went on there that day?

Should we tell her about it?
Now, what should we do?

Well, what would YOU do,
If your mother asked YOU?"

[Actually I think this is the quote verbatim, I've read it enough times to know it!]

Anyway... the reason I'm posting this is because after I read the last sentence to Xander, I always turn to him and ask him what he would do.  And every single time he looks at me confused.  "Yes," he answers.  "I would tell you."  Tonight he said, "yeahhh..." with an unspoken "duh!" on the end.  It's like he's confused by the concept of the whole last page... why wouldn't you tell Mommy everything?

I think it's fabulous.  And I'm already lamenting the loss on the day that changes!  Which I know will be much sooner than I think...

Poor Dumbledore

Every night for the last six nights, our friend Tim has come over after kidlet bedtime to watch Harry Potter movies.  We've been doing a movie a night - tomorrow we'll watch Deathly Hallows Part One, and then the next night we'll go to the premiere.

We just saw the Half-Blood Prince.  I've seen the movie before.  I've read the book before.  Multiple times.

But NOOOOOO!

My grandmother's famous!

My grandmother has been playing this computer game, Bookworm, for years.  She's gotten insane scores, up to 115 million or more.  Well, a while ago Jonathan wrote the creators of Bookworm to tell them about it, and they interviewed her!  She now has a full profile up on the site.  All the PopCap game profiles are found here.   Savta's specific one is:

Lillian Liss, 86 - Arad, Israel

Octogenarian’s Bookworm Score is Higher Than Yours

Mazel tov to her!!

Summer fun

Nothing screams "childhood" like eating a push-up on the potty.

What ARE you doing over there?!

About to be dumped from his dump truck.

Ari thinks that Jonathan pretending to be a bird is the BEST thing ever.  (again, it only shows half the frame unless you view full-screen)

And finally, the quote of the day, courtesy of Xander: "Mosquitos are naughty.  They need to be on time-out, for no biting!"

The ultimate dragon peril

Xander is getting a cold, and is slightly congested.  Fifteen minutes after bedtime, he starts to cough.  He coughs so much that Jonathan goes into the closet and brings out the humidifier.  He fills it up with water, carries it to Xander's room, and plugs it in, all the while explaining to Xander exactly what he's doing and why.

Ten minutes after that, Xander starts to scream.  Jonathan and I tag-team, so this time, it's my turn to rush in.

M: "Honey, what's wrong?!" 

X: "Norbert!  He'll get burned!!"

I look over at Norbert the stuffed dragon.  He's sitting very calmly next to the humidifier.  If anything he's going to get wet, not burned.

M: "What do you mean, get burned?  He's right here.  He'll be fine."

X (sniffling): "Nooo!"  He turns to Norbert.  "Don't get burned."  He turns back to me, holding out his hands. "I want him."

M (perplexed, handing X the dragon):  "Can you tell me why you think he'll get burned?"

X: "Because of the fire!!  Daddy said, 'come see fire.'  I DON'T WANT NORBERT TO GET BURNED!!!"

And then I got it.  The proverbial light bulb went off.  The cartoon hammer hit me over the head.

Humidifier = come see fire.  

Stifling my laughter, I looked down at my very worried son, and explained that Norbert was safe.  There were no flames in sight. And the humidifier, the machine that made the air wet, was going to help him AND Norbert breathe better.

I left the room smiling.  And what do you know?  After that, all was quiet in the land of toddlers and dragons.

"Home birth on the rise by a dramatic 20%"

Read the Associated Press article here, by way of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Top ten things I learned over the long weekend

10) Yo-yo-ing isn't as hard as it looks! For some reason I never learned how. But Jonathan gave me some tips, and I am now a successful yo-yo-er. The best feedback came from Xander, who shouted with a huge smile: "MOMMY! You DID it!"

9) Jonathan says he can't cook steak. But he lies, it was excellent.

8) Motorcycle stores are fun to browse through, even when we're not buying anything. Xander was in awe.

7) Watching The Green Hornet was an hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back. Becca taught us a word years ago that describes it perfectly: craptastic. It was so bad, it was almost an art form.

6) The higher you want the clothing size to be, the younger you are. (Alternatively, the older you get, the more you want a low clothing size.) I'm thrilled that Ari's in six months clothing, delighted that Xander's in 3T, and utterly depressed that most of my clothes are still maternity.

5) Push-up popsicles are just as popular this generation as they were in mine.

4) Ninety percent of my breast milk for Ari turns into drool.

3) Annie's bunnies are just as good as Pepperidge Farm goldfish. And they now sell them at Costco, hooray!

2) It doesn't matter the season or how many layers of clothes we wear. There is ALWAYS a ton of laundry.

1) Best recipe for an ecstatic toddler: strip him naked, put on the sprinklers, and tell him to run.

The 4th of July was awesome as well... but that's a separate post for later.

Two things that made me laugh yesterday

Jonathan and I both had the same size pizza slice for lunch.  I was chatting away while Jonathan was nodding sagely along, occasionally commenting on my monologue.  All of a sudden he noticed that he had a quarter of a slice left while I was already finished.  Honestly puzzled, he asked, "How in the world can you talk so much and finish faster than I do?!  I never even see you eat with your mouth full."  I told him that it was a rare talent.  And one that his sons would no doubt inherit.

Second, I finished A Game of Thrones last week, and am now onto the second in the series, A Clash of Kings.  The latter book was sitting on our bed on the bottom of a stack of board books I'd been reading to Ari and Xander.  Xander took the novel out from under Is Your Mama a Llama? and sat down on the floor with it, turning pages at a fierce pace.  "What are you doing?" I asked.  "Reading this book with lots of words," he replied. Then he gave it back, looking at me in pity.  "Mine are better!"