Category: …And Little E Makes 3

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...And Little C Makes 4 ...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

The Little Green Men on closeness

Too closeFrom time to time when he was younger, and occasionally still now, E has struggled with the concept of personal space – you couldn’t violate his, but he could get all over anyone else. So the following interaction as all three of us sat on the sofa watching something on TV amused me greatly.

  • E [watches intently]
  • C [cuddles up to E]: Hiiiiii!
  • E [ignores little brother]
  • C [getting in his big brother’s face]: HIIIIIIIII!
  • ME: Hey, C. Back off. Personal space.
  • C [still in big brother’s face]: PERSONAL SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

At this point I just kind of had to try to hide how hard I was laughing at it all.… Read more

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...And Little C Makes 4 ...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

The Little Green Men on hippo feasts

Fiona says helloWe’re big fans of Fiona the Hippo, the adorable superstar of the Cincinnati Zoo, at my house. Little C knows her as “the baby hippo”; E just likes to watch watermelons tossed into the hippo cove, where Fiona’s full-sized parents devour them whole. As we watched a Youtube playlist of the Cincinnati Zoo’s hippos – including Fiona – the boys provided the following narration:

E: Watermelons! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

C: Deeeeeeeelicious, hippos!

😆 It’s doesn’t get better than when they team up and tag-team something like this, each with their own sense of humor.

… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming Home Base

The one about the Pokemon

I know a lot of you are sick to death of hearing about Pokemon Go, but let me tell you, if you have a kid who’s accustomed to sitting on the sofa to catch his or her Pokemon, and now they’re all but begging you to get out and about so they can hunt for Pokemon instead of staying inside in air conditioning, you realize this is the greatest thing ever. The Wii was Nintendo getting us off our butts; this is Nintendo getting us out of the house.

All of the headlines that have made you question the sanity and/or value of humanity in the past week? Some of that stuff might not have happened if folks had something in common, something that brought people from disparate backgrounds together to actually get to know each other.

Even if that something is looking for imaginary critters with ridiculous names, that’s better than hunkering down in the bunker and being afraid of each other, right?… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

Conversations with Little E: Day 3188

Chief AndersonYou know, son, back in my day, anime was wide-eyed folks doing good and occasionally forming up into giant robots…

ME: So…wait a minute. It’s called Yo-Kai Watch because…he’s actually wearing…a Yo-Kai…watch?

E: Yeah, dad. What did you think it would be?

ME: I thought maybe…it’d be like…I dunno…a tornado watch?

E: A tornado watch? Dad! That wouldn’t make any sense.

ME: And that way season 2 could be Yo-Kai Warning…

E: Dad! Just stop!… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming

And then BB-8 vanquished the basilisk

E and I played a Tuesday night game of checkers, during which he told me he wanted to introduce some sort of “battle” element to the game. After we finished our game, I fired up the old Apple II game Archon and let him watch the demo mode, and he was instantly hooked, but underwhelmed with the graphics and sound.

So I showed him the NES version. Hooked times two.

Then he proposed we turn it into a board game with our checker board. The following wonderful madness ensued. … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 And Beyond The Infinite

Star party!

Little E and I went to our first Star Party, held each month by the Arkansas/Oklahoma Astronomical Society – and much to our delight it was really more of a planet party!

The event is held at the wonderfully light-pollution-free Janet Huckabee Nature Center in Chaffee Crossing, on a ridge next to Wells Lake Road. The guys from the AOAS had a 10-inch telescope set up, which is great for ogling the confluence of celestial bodies on view right now.

Me and E got there waaaay to early for stargazing, giving us an opportunity to explore the grounds, meet a gaggle of geese, and relax while the sun disappeared from the sky. It was finally time to peer at planets!

Star Party
The moon and Venus – sky’s still too bright for Jupiter to emerge.

The best time to catch Venus is just as the sun is setting or starting to rise. The planet showed off a nice, easily identifiable crescent shape, bright white as always. This wasn’t an astrophotography setup, so I recorded what I saw the old-fashioned way: I sketched it on paper, scanned it, and inverted it on the computer! In much the same manner as the ancients!

Star Party

Sadly, we missed Jupiter – Little E was trying to catch lightning bugs. But when it was darker, the telescope was re-aimed at Saturn.

Star Party
Yep, about that dark. Cell phone photo enhanced to make Jupiter more visible.

Not only were Saturn and its rings visible, but its largest moon, Titan, could also be seen.

Star Party
Saturn and Titan

We had lots of fun and stayed up well past Little E’s bedtime (hey, it’s not a school night).

Meanwhile, at the edge of the outer solar system…

Star Party
The Pluto Party awaits.… Read more