Summer's Here and the Time is Right

Summer has flown by so quickly this year that I can't believe Elijah only has one more week of camp left. It has been a good summer (OK, the weather has ranged from monsoons to steam-room temperatures, so it hasn't been perfect), with the little guy really enjoying himself, be it at camp, the pool or going to a movie. Sarah has done a great job shuffling him from camp to therapy during the week, all the while moving her new business forward. I have seen some real growth in Elijah, both in his verbal abilities and in his behavior.

We have been told that he has tried, and on occasion completely eaten, his prepared lunches at camp, which have included all sorts of fruits and vegetables. He has engaged people in conversations and now talks on the phone with both Sarah and me. He loves the water and constantly wants to swim to the "red line" that is the depth marker for 5' 2." (I have to explain to him that he can do that only when Mommy is with him, not Daddy, for obvious reasons.) He now enjoys 3-D movies, keeping his glasses on the entire time while commenting "this is cool." Popcorn, both at the movies and at home, has been added to his food list, along with watermelon.

Some of his quirkiness still remains. He still is fascinated when he hears or sees children crying, trying to get as close as he can to them with a huge grin on his face. His rote speech of songs, movies or TV shows continues, but he at least now tells us where the words and phrases originated. And, to Sarah's chagrin, he loves to emit all sorts of bodily noises -- but isn't that what little boys do best?

With Sarah trying to get work done, weekends have been Daddy time, but I'm not complaining. It has been, for the most part, a joyful ride with enough ups and downs to equal an (and I'm dating myself here) E-ticket at Disneyland. Which reminds me that it's just two weeks until we take Elijah to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. Stay tuned!

The Answer My Friend is Blowin In the Wind...and the Willows

Ever since my first visit to Disneyland (so long ago the canoe trip in Frontierland was considered "state-of-the-art") my favorite ride there has been Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I always loved the quick turns and near disasters, and no, not because it reminded me of my own driving abilities. Yet, until Elijah's arrival I had never known the source and inspiration for this ride.

As a gift years ago, Elijah got a DVD of Wind and the Willows, and though the sound mix and animation of this version appears to have been done somewhere in the Outback, (it was done by a company in Australia) the little guy loves it nonetheless. And as for me, knowing the background story of Toad Hall and all of it's animal denizens, gave me not only a greater understanding of the ride, but a huge desire to share the joy of experiencing Toad's escapade with my son. (And yes, I know it will have to be at Disneyland as the Toad ride was closed in Orlando.)

So until we take that trip to childhood Mecca, which will be probably this year, Elijah will have to make do with a DVD, his imagination and the artistic ability to recreate the main characters:

I think Walt would have been proud.

Why Kung Fu Panda is no Winnie the Pooh

I will admit that I enjoy watching movies more than reading. I also will fess up to enjoying the films To Kill a Mockingbird and The Godfather more than the novels, although in both cases it was incredible performances that made it so. I can also state, I think without too much debate, that perhaps the worst film adaptation of a great book was Bonfire of the Vanities, which turned one of the lead characters, an old Yiddish judge, into Morgan Freeman (?!) thus destroying one of the major subplots.


So I was somewhat hesitant when I took Elijah to go see the film version of Where the Wild Things Are, a classic children's book that consists of maybe 100 words, yet was over an hour and a half long as a movie. We had already experienced Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which besides the title, shared little with the book we read together on many nights. My fears about the Maurice Sendak classic turned out to be well founded. Although Elijah seemed to enjoy the movie (though restlessness was evident on occasion) the charm of the book was completely lost in the midst of what I would call a movie not about childhood escape but about monster angst.

As draining as watching the tortured souls of the "Wild Things" was (the anguish of new friends, old relationships and anger management were constant topics for discussion), it was a joy compared to the "live action" versions of the Dr. Seuss classics How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat. Whoever was responsible for those travesties needs to be locked in a room for a weekend and be forced to view them over and over again.

Since Elijah's arrival, I have watched enough cartoons and kids movies to revisit my childhood many times over (OK, I'll admit I owned a lot of those films already) and unlike most of today's stuff, it holds up pretty well. Even after viewing the cartoon Grinch numerous times, both Elijah and I can still enjoy it a great deal, which is not the case with just a repeat viewing of Fly Me to the Moon (even with the 3-D). The Disney "Classics," the original Horton Hears a Who cartoon, and the Peanuts Trilogy (Charlie Brown Christmas, Thanksgiving and Great Pumpkin) show what a child's cartoon film should be about....entertaining fun, memorable music and no more than 80 minutes long.

I know Tom Hanks looks different with long hair....but not this much!

Last month our cable company had one of those specials that run every few months, though I guess their frequency wouldn't make them so special. For the month of July we would receive two extra premium movie channels for free with the hope we would become so enamored that we would have to sign (pay) up once our trial period ran out. Fifty opportunities to see Lara Croft Tomb Raider is probably forty-nine too many, so I wasn't about to increase my cable bill just yet, however I did take advantage of the offer by DVRing a variety of movies I have missed, including a couple of recent Oscar winners.


Being the caring husband that I am, I saw there was going to be a showing on late one night of a film that Sarah had not seen, but had been fascinated by the story, if not the writing. The DaVinci Code was going to be on at 1:00 a.m. so I decided to tape it for her. It wasn't until the next morning that I discovered that the film I recorded was not the Ron Howard directed version, but was in fact called the DaVinci Coed, a soft-core porn movie which I doubt followed the book too closely. The reason I don't know the storyline is that the opening scene in this "classic" involved two girls and what appeared to be a sultan in a hot tub that was suppose to be in a palace in Europe but sure looked like a backyard in the San Fernando Valley. This threesome was interrupted by another woman, upset that the sultan would not give her his "powerful ring" (Wasn't this the plot line of the Beatles film "Help".) and thus murdered all three by electrocuting them with a toaster tossed into the hot tub, cord and all.


Now forgetting for a moment the absurdity of a unplugged toaster being tossed into water and thus shocking these people to death, the special effects of lightning bolts shooting through the water to show this mayhem were "Plan Nine from Outer Space" variety. Now I am not adverse to watching a sexy movie, but even a fantasy has to have some basis in reality and even I couldn't get by an electrocution by an unplugged appliance. I immediately deleted the film and now it has, in Sarah's mind, become an urban legend of smut.

But I haven't soured on recording movies that seem interesting to me. As an example I was unaware of a Dirty Harry sequel playing tonight that I must have missed when it came out. No, I'm not talking about Sudden Impact or Magnum Force, both of which I've seen. Has anyone heard of Dirty Harriet? Oh well, I'll give you my review later.

There's no place like home

I always knew Elijah would love "The Wizard of Oz"; it was in his genes. (I had been Munchkin of the Day on a local radio show many, many years ago.) So I was excited to see that it was going to be playing uninterrupted on TCM this past holiday weekend. Yay, DVR!

Boy, was I right. He was riveted to the screen for the entire movie. He loved the music, the color of OZ and especially the main characters (the Wicked Witch didn't scare him, but the flying monkeys necessitated Daddy sharing the chair for hugs). When we went to the park that night for fireworks, the walk back to the car was punctuated by Elijah's singing of "We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of OZ. Because because because because because because because because" (at this point Daddy, for the peace of mind of anyone walking near us, informed Elijah that it was because of the wonderful things he does.)

His love of the film hasn't waned (like any child, he will watch something that he likes over and over again), and repeated viewings have caused his creative side to emerge. At the top of this post is the front of a card he did today. Below is the inside ...

This is one of many wonderful things he does!

Example #6874 of what being the parent of toddler means...

Number of Oscar nominated "Best Picture" movies I've seen this past year......ZERO

Number of Oscar nominated "Best Animated Feature Films" I've seen.....EVERY ONE

As well as: Horton Hears a Who, Fly Me to the Moon and one other one about penguins I can't remember.
Thank God for DVDs and HBO!