String Bean's Words

This morning I told String Bean it was naptime. She looked at me and said, "Boom, boom, pow!" and then turned away and said, "I need Star Wars."

Speaking of innocence...

Earlier tonight, there was a Stars Wars movie on TV. Walnut thinks Stars Wars is the coolest thing ever, even though he has never seen any of the movies. (Isn't peer pressure grand?) So, Filbert called Walnut to the TV and they settled in to watch. After a while, I hear Walnut ask what Anakin's mom was doing. Filbert said, "That's not his mom." Walnut replied with the wisdom and disgust born of 7 years on this planet "Then why is he kissing her?"

Purging 101

On the heels of us cleaning out our storage, here are my tips for getting rid of extra stuff you don't need:

• If you haven't used it in a year, get rid of it.
• If you must keep some sentimental things from your childhood because your mother sold all your Star Wars action figures, decide in advance to limit it to one or two boxes and stick to it. (Boy, I hope Mr. Bean reads this!)
• Consider giving a treasured item you haven't used for over a year to someone who can really use it. Although it is great to give your extras to charity, if you're like me and you have a really hard time getting rid of something of sentimental value, you may find it easier to part with the item if you give it to a friend who can use it so you know it is being appreciated.
• Have limited storage space like we do and you'll be forced to part with things you don't use!
  

Indy Recap Part 2

As promised, let me share with you our experience at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

String Bean enjoys playing in water in the Playscape exhibit.
Photo by Mr. Bean

Pros:

• There was a load of things to do for toddlers and big kids. If you have multi-aged children in your family, you will not be disappointed with the variety of choices here.
  
• There are several places to crawl through, over or under things in the museum. Your kids will definitely leave the museum ready for a good nap.
• There is a fantastic carousel on the 4th floor of the museum. It costs $1.00 per rider, but a fun thing to do especially if you have a little one who loves animals. There is also an old fashioned horse ride that you might remember from your childhood. You know the kind in front of the grocery store? It costs a nickle per ride. String Bean had 3 rides in a row and kept asking for more. Be sure to bring some cash and get change at the front desk, or bring a roll of nickles for your little one. Cheap thrills!
• Parking is FREE in the museum's garage. Your kids will enjoy taking the sky walk across the street to the museum.
• The main bathrooms at the museum have little pottys for your little ones.
  
• The food court is almost completely kid-friendly food. They have a toddler's snack bar where you can order things like grapes, Goldfish Crackers and cottage cheese!
• For your preschooler, there is a section of the museum (Playscape) that is specially designed just for them. Besides the water area, sand area, a kid-sized house and a few slides, there is also story time, music time and art time. We could have spent all day in this area of the museum with String Bean. She was given a set of jingle bells and got to participate in a parade through the Playscape exhibit!
• This is a very stroller-friendly museum. There are no stairs. There are elevators and ramps from floor to floor. The ramps are fun because they have a huge glass sculpture in the middle of them that is fun to look at as you go from floor to floor.
  

Cons:

• We chose to go at a time when large portions of the museum were closed and in-between exhibits. When you plan your trip be sure to check what is open there before you show up. Of course, Mr. Bean was happy to see the Star Wars exhibit and dress String Bean up in the make believe outfits. Even though there were sections closed we still found plenty to fill our day.
• Admission is $14.50 per adult and $9 per child (2 and up). So, this can be a costly visit. Military discounts available. There are a few free nights, but expect large crowds.

Yoda uses the force on young Jedi String Bean.
Photo by Mr. Bean

My Husband's Fixations

Maybe your husband is like mine. He’s fixated on a couple of things: the Chicago Bears, Star Wars, all things related to audio engineering, and Seinfeld. It is rare that I go through a day without mention of one of these things.

Chicago Bears. We are constantly re-living the glory days of the 1985 Superbowl season. Mr. Bean was about 10 years old when the Bears won that Superbowl. He remembers every painstaking detail of that season as if it happened just this year.

YouTube has old Saturday Night Live sketches of the Super Fans. Oh. My. I hear “Ditka!” and “Bearzzz” anytime one of his phanitical fan friends is nearby.

Star Wars. We have more boxes of Star Wars action figures than I care to share. We have so many that when friends help us move they comment years later on Mr. Bean’s extensive collection. We have a book that Mr. Bean can look through and point out the ones he’s missing. He takes them out of the boxes about once a year and fills up the entire living room, dining room, hallway, and part of our master bedroom with them laid out side by side leaving only room for tiptoe paths from the couch to the bathroom.

When Mr. Bean gets together with his brother, they play “Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.” They know all the answers so it isn’t any fun. Instead of just not playing, they made a new rule. Your answer must be EXACTLY what is written on the back of the card. If the answer is “Luke and Leia” and you say “Leia and Luke” you are wrong.

Audio Engineering. There was an audio engineering contest hosted by Neumann that would rank the best audio engineers of the whole world. Mr. Bean placed 27^th. *Applause* Yes, he’s a stud. Hands off ladies…he’s taken!

As proud as I am of this hunk-of-a-geek, I can’t help but get annoyed when we watch movies and he leans over to tell me the exact model of the microphone being featured. “Hey, look, that’s an U47 large-diaphragm vacuum tube microphone with a remote power!” Huh? I really don’t want to hear about the binaural head microphones and how much we NEED one anymore.

Seinfeld.

“But I don’t want to be a pirate!”

“I don’t have a square to spare.”

“No soup for you. Come back one year.”

“La, la, la!”

“You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweat pants? You're telling the world: ‘I give up.’”

It is a shame that I know so many of these quotes considering I don’t watch the show religiously. Mr. Bean has all the seasons loaded onto his i-Pod so he can watch them whenever his heart desires. What kind of sick fascination is this? More importantly, why do I feel possessed to join him with the quote-fests?

(Posted with the permission of Mr. Bean.)