Avatar

Just to repeat what everyone else has said about it, Avatar is stunning, and if you have any interest in it at all, you should see it on the big screen. I have to think the IMAX would be nice, but we couldn't go there because the theater was closed due to the threat of the building collapsing under accumulated snow (or so the sign taped to the door indicated). We did see it in 3D. The 3D was more subtle than other 3D movies I've seen. I think it generally gave the visuals a certain richness, though I felt like there was a certain blurriness at times towards the edge of the screen. I'd like to watch parts in 2D to compare.

Getcher math on

The New York Times has started a series of columns on math, "from pre-school to grad school", written by Steven Strogatz, a Cornell professor. It starts with the basics - in this case, counting, featuring a clip from Sesame Street. Looks promising.

Unappetizing

Katherine had prunes today - her first fruit - so you might think this is going to be a gross baby food story, but no. She loved the prunes far too much to squander their yumminess on mess-making.

This story is about buying flounder stuffed with crab meat from Trader Joe's. (A 6-ounce serving for $2.99. Such a deal, right?) I explained to Owen that "stuffed" meant that there was one food inside another. In this case, there was crab inside the flounder. First he wanted to see the crab. "Well, we can't see it now. We'll see it once we've cooked it and cut into the fish."

"Crab have claws?" "Yes, but they take off the claws before they stuff the crab in the fish."

"Mommy and baby crab inside." Umm...

"Daddy crab talking. Crab have mouths."

Thankfully, by this point we were ready to check out, which provided a helpful distraction. If he'd kept going, describing how much the crabs were looking forward to their family vacation to North Carolina*, I might have had to put it back.

* North Carolina is Owen's go-to spot these days. When a spaceship blasts off, it's almost always going to North Carolina. When Owen crawls underneath Katherine's crib or a blanket, he will declare himself to be in a cave in North Carolina.

Our newest foodie

Katherine has started the solid food. She was ready for the cereals and worked through rice, oatmeal and barley in fairly short order. Now starting veg, sweet potatoes have been a huge hit, and squash was pretty well received. The jury is still out on peas, but we've only had one try so far.

She gets pretty excited sometimes, leaning forward with her mouth open for each bite. As often as not, though, her excitement manifests as grabbing the part of the spoon loaded with food and then trying to shove the whole fist-ball of spoon and strained goodness into her mouth. Less effective.

Today's Owenisms

Carla folded a paper boat for Owen, which he pronounced "the most beautiful boat I've ever seen". He also described his spaceship (a partially unfolded paper airplane) as "the most beautiful spaceship I've ever seen".

Concerning the spaceship, he said, "Need engines to blast off." One at a time, he picked four engines off the floor and attached each to the spaceship: two at the bottom and two on the wings. (Spaceship engines are surprisingly small, fitting between the forefinger and thumb of a 2.5-year-old.) You could tell when each engine had been attached, because Owen said "tck". Then, "1, 2, 3, blastoff!" (He's doubtless rolling his eyes and sighing on the inside every time I mistakenly count backwards before a blastoff or shampoo rinsing.)

In the past week, Owen's taken to saying "actually" for emphasis. I'd wonder where he picked that up, except that I was mocked for it in college. So I guess I did it to him. Sorry, son.