Friday, May 26, 2006

Puttering Around Town

Ed hasn’t been feeling well today (maybe the new drugs, maybe coming down with something), so the kids and I spent a lot of time rattling around town today in order to give him some rest.  K. had her yearly check-up this morning.  I’d been planning to leave T. at home, since he tends to talk too much, but then a fellow called this morning and said he’d like to see the house in an hour.  I took both kids, and Ed showed the house.  He says it went well, that the guy really was interested, but that he had another house he was going to look at this weekend.  The check-up went fine.  K. is in the 97th percentile  for height, and 80th for weight, and the doctor said that was good.  (And it does calm my worries about whether a child can thrive on a diet of crackers and ice cream.)  The doctor upped K.’s Zirtec dosage, since the eczema, the stuffiness, and the light sensitivity have all been pretty bad lately.  We ended very happily with lollipops, and both kids exclaiming that they have the nicest doctor and nurses around (they really are exceptionally nice).

In the afternoon, we went off to the video store in search of Nanny McPhee.  T.’s friend Hana told him today that she would not be joining us for a sleepover tonight.  This is not the first time they have made plans and she has cancelled at the last minute, so I wasn’t surprised (or, to be honest, hugely disappointed), but T. was crushed.  I pointed out, helpfully, that he might as well learn early on that some people are unreliable, and that now he knows not to put too much faith in plans they make, but this didn’t seem to cheer him.  I agreed to invite another of his friends for a sleepover in the next couple weeks, and said that we would rent a movie and have popcorn and a movie tonight.  Anyway, we found Nanny McPhee (I think Emma Thompson is marvelous), and also The Thief Lord, which looked interesting (and they threw in a Clifford movie, which I don’t like, but which K. adores).  Afterwards, we went to the bookstore.  I was looking for The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle, but they were out.  We just finished The Adventures of of Doctor Doolittle for book group, and I was surprised by how much the kids enjoyed it.  The version we have is somewhat edited by Patricia McKissack (and with pictures by Michael Hague) and I think they took out some of the more dated aspects.  Before kids, I might have objected to having my books “cleaned up” as too “PC,” but now I’m grateful.  Not that I want it done in a heavy handed way, but when a couple minor changes allow us to enjoy a good story, I say “have at it.”  We were reading a biography of Michelangelo by Diane Stanley yesterday, and it was very interesting, but I turned a page mid-sentence and found myself reading about Michelangelo getting in trouble with church leaders for an issue which I am just not ready to discuss with my kids.  I wouldn’t have minded a bit if Ms. Stanley had decided to leave that particular aspect of Michelangelo’s life out of her picture book!  I managed to find a couple other books to bring home (that never seems to be a problem) and they will order Voyages.

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