Melty the Snowman

Edmund and Melty

Greeting blog followers. This past month I have been taken hostage by a person of short stature who thinks communicating through raspberries is the way of the future. Fortunately, I have managed to escape for this one night to give you the report on our latest adventure.

Steven was on call today, which means I do my best to find activities to fill up our day. It's not that I mind staying at home and playing with Edmund. In fact this would be great, but the distractions of home life beckon to me from every room. It's great that Edmund can play by himself for longer stretches now, but I hate to spend the whole day saying "go play, I need to do laundry" or "go play, I need to vacuum up this minuscule crumb I just spotted." It is curious to me that these things that really can wait seem so pressing if I'm at home. I've discovered that if I take Edmund somewhere I'm able to just "be" with him. Thus I was excited to read about a children's concert at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro and was pleasantly surprised to find it took place on an "on call" day.

We arrived at The ArtsCenter a little early to participate in the Art's Sampler taking place this morning. The Sampler as its name states was a sampler of children's classes offered. Edmund was still a little young to quite enjoy the offerings. He was given the opportunity to make a pinch pot out of clay. He stuck his thumb in and was "all done". He also listened to a story by one of the art's teachers, but when she began doing interpretive dance he was "all done." As soon as the doors opened for the concert we headed in. Edmund could have his pick of any seat in the house, but he chose to sit several rows back. To my surprise he was very well behaved during the twenty minute wait for the show to start. He has been all about instruments these days, so it didn't hurt we were able to talk about the various types of guitars and trombone propped on the stage.

At 11 am sharp Lunch Money took the stage. The sound wasn't phenomenal in the auditorium, but then I really wasn't expecting it to be. Not the band's fault, simply the nature of the room. The great thing was it didn't matter. This indie rock children's band knows how to put on a show. Soon my little child who always refuses to dance and instead play air guitar, was begging to get on the dance floor. Edmund's dance move of choice was hopping up and down then falling down and squirming on his belly in the middle of the floor. This is why I never have a chance to sit back. Edmund is a very sweet child who has 100x more energy than most kids I know. Apparently he gets it from Steven, who is said to have had Edmund's energy times ten. Yikes! At least Edmund uses his powers for good and not evil. Nevertheless, I must be within arms reach of my child at all times, lest he get a little out of control.

Edmund danced through the entire hour long set. The majority of songs were interactive. I loved that they were short and about things kids can relate to. Edmund and I are both major Raffi fans and this is because his songs are short and sweet. Raffi's songs are catchy and hold a child's attention. A lot of the new children's bands have songs that are simply too long to be memorable. Lunch Money was refreshingly the opposite. The trombone is a recent addition, but I love that this band wasn't simply the typical vocals, drums, and guitar. Not that there is anything wrong with guitar, as it seems master Edmund is heading toward a career as a lead guitarist. However, I like that Edmund was exposed to an instrument we've often talked about but don't often see or hear. The concert was the perfect length for young attention spans at one hour. And Edmund loved it. His feet were still a dancin' when we walked to get lunch at the pizza place next door. I am a new Lunch Money found and will definitely be looking for a CD soon.

All that dancing wore Edmund out and he easily went down for a nap. As he napped a blanket of snow began covering our yard. I had heard tell of snow this weekend, but ignored it 1.because if I get excited about snow it never happens and 2. what fun is it if it happens on a weekend when there is no chance of school closings? When Edmund woke up I showed him the snow. He of course wanted to go out in it. I kept telling him "later" as I really didn't want to venture into the cold. However, I do love snow and couldn't deny Edmund the opportunity to play in it any longer. In North Carolina you have to take snow when you get it. For all we know this could be it for the winter.

When we walked outside Edmund immediately spotted the neighbor's snowman. He wanted to play with it and was disappointed when I told him he couldn't. So I suggested we build our own. It's been a long time since I've built a snowman, mainly because they are so time consuming. I forgot how quickly you can build one when the snow is perfect, and today we had perfect snowman snow. I rolled three balls for the snowman in less than ten minutes. Edmund helped me collect stick arms. We then went inside to find objects for eyes, nose, and mouth. Unfortunately we didn't have any carrots, but we did have some old green beans I felt bad about throwing away. So our snowman ended up with a green bean nose, raisin eyes, and an almond mouth. He also donned Edmund's hat from last winter. The perfect snowman with treats to share with the animals.

I got so caught up in the snowman building I forgot about the cold and our dinner engagement. I quickly threw Edmund in the car. As we drove away I noticed our snowman starting to lean. I thought I must not have balanced his segments well and hoped he would be in one piece when we returned. An hour later we pulled into the driveway. Our snowman had met its demise. Perhaps I'm slightly off my rocker, but seeing that the neighbor's snowman had met a similar fate made me feel much better about my snowman building capabilities. Edmund and I said good-bye to our frosty friend and headed inside to bid farewell to a day well spent.