Charlie and the Tractor Factory

I didn't realize Renae was going to post so soon. Now this blog will be out of order and I'll have to start Felix's blog all over from scratch. Actually, I think I'll just accept that this will be out of order.
I really don't have too much to say on this one. The pictures were taken by our friend Kelly, Charlie's mom, and I don't know much about what went on other than Kelly found that she had our camera and snapped some pictures. Thank you, Kelly.




As you can imagine, Tru had the time of his life.













It has been expressed to me by several people, including Renae, that they don't know what it means that Felix has The Shine. The Shine is an extrasensory gift held by a little boy in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie, The Shining (I realize it was a book first, but I didn't read it). The Shine was expressed by the boys pointer finger that used him as a medium in delivering cryptic messages of impending doom. You can understand now why Pointer has me so concerned. Scatman Crothers recognized the gift but I don't remember if he himself had The Shine. If he did, he failed to foresee an ax in the back.
One last thing, Renae is supposed to have some pictures to go along with the previous post; don't let her get away with not adding them.

The Big Show at the Little Gym

For the last three weeks Felix has been joining his friend, Charlie, at the Little Gym's Funny Bugs gymnastics class for 3 year-olds. They go together on Tuesdays while Charlie's mom, Kelly, watches Felix and I get some much needed work done. This has worked out very well as Charlie and Felix get along famously and seem to share the same high level of vocabulary and imagination. With Vala and April in Iceland the success of the situation is a great relief. Anyway, the culmination of 12 weeks of training (only 3 for Felix) is the 'Big Show', which I attended on Tuesday. I haven't attended any of the Little Gym sessions as I figured Felix would be much less likely to participate if I were around. Just after I arrived I saw Charlie coming up the walk so I ducked into the bathroom so I wouldn't distract Felix from his pre-performance preparations. I left the light off so I could hear when to come out and thus scared some poor kid and her mom when they came in to use the bathroom. (Dana just commented, "Renae, you do the weirdest things sometimes." - So True) I continued to hide from Felix until the performance began and then managed to sneak into the audience unnoticed. The kids went through several routines that they'd been practicing, all with child development in mind as well as basic gymnastics skills. After a round of jumping and attempting handstands and forward rolls, Felix ran to sit next to his buddy, Charlie and exclaimed, "That really tires me out."

Felix has always enjoyed the balance beam and the instructor described the story they tell to coordinate with the child's movements: A caterpillar crawls along a branch (balance beam), crouches into a cocoon and waits for the count of three and then stands up, spreads his wings and says "I have beautiful wings" while turning in a circle. Then the butterfly walks to the end of the branch, flies (sticks one leg out) and then jumps off the branch and says, "Tada" with arms up in the air. Felix did the routine perfectly except that as he spun in a circle he caught my eye and exclaimed, "I see my mom!" From then on there was little the instructor could do that kept his attention. All the other parents clearly understood why I had previously been hiding out and got quite a kick out of it.

Felix Has "The Shine"

In the above picture, in front of Felix's face, is Pointer. Pointer tells Felix things. Today Pointer told Felix that Felix wanted to watch Looney Toons. Here is what happened: After picking Tru up from his Aunt Susie's, we arrived home and began playing on my bed. Then Felix extended his pointer finger and introduced me to Pointer. He said in a lowered voice while showing me his finger, "This is Pointer", he then turned Pointer to his chest and in a slow, gruff voice, and as if Pointer is talking of himself in the third person, he says "Pointer wants Felix to watch (now Pointer is pointing to the TV)Looney Toons." I would have thought that he was visited by Scatman Crothers except that Scatman Crothers is dead. (Renae had to clarify that Scatman Crothers is the person who visited the boy in the movie, the Shining, and foretold that the boy had the 'shine'. Remember "Redrum, redrum"?)

Today is Renae's birthday. While I was at work, Renae dropped Felix off at Cousin Rooney's pad, and spent the day with her mother and sisters. Once I got home after picking Felix up, he and I celebrated Renae's birthday blowing bubbles in the front yard.