Saturday, July 16, 2011

The new Casa de la Familia Scott


For those of you who are interested, here's a picture of our new house.

It doesn't show the inside, but it will eventually have white walls, gleaming hardwoods, kitchen cabinets painted with a nice modern and sophisticated color, and all my (eventually) mid-century modern furniture. It's not a MCM on the outside (hello columns!), but I will make it freaking kick-ass on the inside, little by little. Believe me, I've already been ALL OVER Etsy planning my purchases.

Check it out! How much does that cat mugshot rock? And those coffee tables ... WANT.

Also, note that the driveway is pretty much a full-size basketball court, so we will be mounting a basketball goal up above there as soon as we're able. And an aside to my brother Jay: "You. Me. H-O-R-S-E ... it's on!"

You can't really tell from the pictures, but the back yard is pretty awesome. It has a nice deck with a sun shade, a great patio for relaxing with a cold drink or having dinner al fresco (the sellers have even sold us their patio furniture), and a built-in grill for charcoal-fired dinners. We're hoping to move the pretty shed off to the side of the yard so we can set up soccer goals and such back there for the boys to go crazy with. Yep, that back yard is gonna kick some major ass six months out of the year.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Wilder's damn good questions, Vol. 3: What is the biggest thing on Earth?


Tonight's question was just that: "What is the biggest thing on Earth?"

I didn't know the answer to this, so I had to look it up. It's the earth's atmosphere.

"What's atmosphere?"

Luckily I had done my research and answered this with more than "the stuff we can't see that surrounds the earth."

This all turned into a discussion of science: fungi, bacteria, animals, plants, etc. We found out there's a fungus that is actually the largest living thing on earth. It's referred to as Armillaria ostoyae, the honey mushroom, or — my personal favorite — humongous fungus (which is also what I'll name my band should I ever form one).

We also talked about the biggest dinosaurs: Argentinosaurus is thought to be the largest (the seismosaurus and ultrasaurus are common guesses, as well).

It's pretty cool what you learn when you have a kid that asks questions like this all the time. There's a worm called the bootlace worm that washed up on the shores of Scotland in 1864. 180 feet long. Yuck.

Next we'll be breaking out the microscope and ordering bacteria slides, because he's DYING to see stuff like this.

He watches the Science Channel a lot now.

Lord do I love my little geek. So handsome, so smart and so very sweet.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Wilder's damn good questions, vol. 2 (and some answers)

Or attempts at answers, I should say.

As Wilder was going to bed tonight, he fired off a barrage of questions, presumably to avoid actually having to shut his eyes and attempt sleep.

And so it goes:

"Hey mom, what would happen if there was no grass in the world?"

"Well, no one would ever get high," I responded.

Kidding.

"There would be no cows," Jerry said.

Wilder: "What would happen if there was no ground?"

Jerry: "Everyone would fall to the center of the earth and burn up and die."

Yes, he actually said that.

Me, casting a dirty look at Jerry: "OR, we'd just all have to swim because the Earth would be covered in water." (Thoughts of 'Waterworld' now in my head ... dammit!)

Wilder: "What would happen if there were no mouths?"

Me, before Jerry could tell him we'd all starve to death: "What would we eat with, what would we talk with, smile with, laugh with?"

Sometimes, it's best to answer these questions with a question, I've discovered.

"What if there were no noses?"

"What would be breathe with, smell with?"

"What would happen if there was no hair?"

"We'd be pretty cold."

"What would happen if there was no light?"

"It would be very dark and scary. That's why we have electricity and the sun and even the moon gives us light." (Yes, I know that's actually still the sun's light ... knowitalls.)

"What if there was no sun?"

"Well, we'd die. Everything on the Earth would die."

Crap, now I'm answering him like Jerry! Quick ...

"But the sun's not going anywhere."

"Umm, Mom ... you need to go pee. Go pee."

He's right, of course. I'm dancing around his room like a mad woman, waiting for the questions to end. He always knows, just like his father does, when I have to go pee. And he permits me to take leave so that I can. He's sweet like that. Also, I don't think he wants me peeing on his floor.

So that was the end of the night's questions. I'm pretty sure if my bladder had not saved me I'd still be up there answering more, probably something along the lines of "What if there were no galaxies" or "What would happen if the Universe imploded?" The longer the line of questioning goes on, the more fatalistic it tends to get.

By the by, Jerry just came downstairs and announced, quizzically, "Wilder's very concerned I'm going to fall into a fire and die."

Uhh ... dude? Duh.

Anyway, you'll notice that I'm now being addressed as "Mom." Jerry is still sometimes "Papa," but he's also "Pop" a lot more now, too. And that tooth he lost a couple of weeks ago? The new one has already popped through the surface.

And kindergarten starts in a month.

Sneef SNEEF. Our boy is growing up ... so fast.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Wilder's damn good questions, vol. 1

I'm going to try to make a series out of these ... these questions that Wilder asks us on a regular basis now. They are almost always, in my opinion, thought-provoking.

A few that I remember from the past few days:

"What would the sun taste like?" (And, of course, "What would the moon taste like?")

"What is bigger than a giant?"

"What is smaller than a piece of dust?"

"What is God? Where is God?"

"What would happen if there were no people in this world?"

"What would happen if all the birds died?"

"What would happen if there were no cars in this world?"

"What do ants eat?"

"What would it be like if there was no food?"

"What is sunshine made out of?"

"Who makes the wind blow?"

"Hunter, why do you sit in the middle of the stairs when people are trying to walk through here???"

That's all I can remember for now. More to come, no doubt — he's a very curious kid.