Brown Family Circus: August 2010

Friday, August 27, 2010

Glub

Last night when putting the kids in bed, Nut Brown requested that I sing the green and speckled frog song (the one that counts down the frogs on the log as they jump off into the pool, glub glub). I sang it with three frogs, because that's about as many verses as I like to sing. Then Rose Pink reminds me that Raffi sings it with four frogs, and decides that she's going to sing it to us with five frogs. She gets through the first verse and finishes with one glub, and tells me that she's going to do one glub for each of the frogs that's jumped off at the end of each verse. So verse 2 finishes with 2 glubs, verse 3 with three glubs and so on. I thought it was pretty great that she could keep separate the number of glubs versus the number of frogs left on the log, because that's what the song tracks. Then she finishes verse five and starts glubbing, and she keeps going, and then more glubs, and I realize that she's singing the Star Wars theme using the syllable 'glub'. I start to laugh, and she stops and says, that's a lot of frogs.

27 Aug 2010

So in the car, on our vacation in Utah, we're driving about an hour, and Rose Pink asks Mr. Brown to tell her a Princess Rose Pink story. Princess Rose Pink stories always start: once upon a time, long ago and far away, lived a beautiful princess with red hair and blue eyes whose name was.... and Rose Pink shouts, "PRINCESS ROSE PINK!". That night we were all tired, so Mr. Brown tried to get Rose Pink involved in helping tell the story.

Mr. Brown: One morning Princess Rose Pink received a message from the dwarf chieftain (is anyone surprised that it was a dwarf? Me neither.) asking for assistance! So Princess Rose Pink mounted her trusty steed Fluffy and rode to the dwarves' mountain. What is wrong? she asked the dwarf king. Oh help us, Princess Rose Pink, said the dwarf, for we are overrun by zombies! (Zombies are popular in our house lately.) See, mighty Princess, look here? And she saw a whole cavern full of zombies fighting the dwarves and moving inexorably forward. There were hundreds of them! What does Princess Rose Pink do?

Rose Pink: Princess Rose Pink runs away. She runs all the way back home to get Prince Nut Brown.

(Prince Nut Brown was falling asleep in his seat but revived when he heard his name.)

Nut Brown: Prince Nut Brown kills all the zombies with his axe! Whack! Whack!

Mr. Brown: With his axe?

Nut Brown: From his father! It's silver! Whack! Whack! They're all dead!

Mr. Brown: And then what does he do?

Nut Brown: He climbs up to the top of the mountain!

Mr. Brown: What does he see?

Nut Brown: He sees a dead dragon.

Mr. Brown: How does he know that it's dead?

Nut Brown: It's been eaten a little bit.

Adrian: Well, if there's a dead dragon, that must mean there's dragon treasure around here! (Is anyone surprised that the chronic rogue felt this was an opportunity to jump into the story? Me neither.) You should look for it! Climb around the mountain and see if you find a cave.

Nut Brown: I go in a cave.

Mr. Brown: What do you find?

Adrian: Treasure!

Nut Brown: Another dragon! It's alive!

Adrian: Run away! Are you going to kill it?

Nut Brown: No! I have my axe. And my two swords. They are named... um... (insert five minute discussion about what the swords are named, and I don't remember now)

Adrian: So are you going to kill the dragon?

Nut Brown: No! He fixes my swords. They're broken. And then I kill more zombies!

Rose Pink: Princess Rose Pink gets out her sword, too, and goes to visit the dwarves.

Adrian: As Princess Rose Pink prepares to attack the zombies with her sword, she suddenly feels weak and wobbly. Her muscles won't do what she tells them to! She begins to collapse on the ground! What are you going to do?

Mr. Brown: I smell a hidden magic user.

Rose Pink: Ummmm....

Nut Brown: I take Princess Rose Pink to the dragon! So he can fix her!

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That was the first time that Nut Brown demonstrated his interest and capacity for telling his own stories. Last night he asked me for a story again and we started with Prince Nut Brown setting off to explore, and staying overnight in a barn on a farm.

Adrian: Early the next morning, Prince Nut Brown is awakened by the farmer hollering, "Git outta here, you no-good varmint!" Prince Nut Brown runs out of the barn and sees the farmer yelling at a gigantic chicken, as big as the barn. "bock bawk bokk" says the chicken, and then it lays an egg as big as the table!! What does Prince Nut Brown do?

Nut Brown: (with very round eyes) He lays an egg too!

Adrian: He what?

Nut Brown: He lays an egg too! Out of his nose!

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Another time Prince Nut Brown was riding on his steed with his daddy on his way to the Mountains of Doom (it was Nut Brown's decision to bring his daddy on this quest) when a tiny groundhog popped out of the ground in front of them and warned them about not continuing on their quest, for they would surely come to a BAD END if they pressed on. Then the groundhog dove back down its hole. What did Prince Nut Brown do? He dove down the hole after the groundhog.

This type of storytelling is entertaining for everyone. He keeps us on our toes.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

dreaming

Tonight we drove up Woodward Avenue to a park in Birmingham. Please note that today is August 18th. Here are a few of the sights we saw driving up (photos taken out the window of our car):

The Woodward Dream Cruise isn't until the 21st of August, but there are already tons of people cruising, and watching the cruisers, all along Woodward Avenue.

On our way back, we ended up in the middle of a lot of Corvettes of various years. How many distinctive double taillights can you count? Double that, because there were more ahead of and behind us. What do you call a group of Corvettes? A cruise, of course.