"And Sir Isaac Newton Lived Happily Ever After"

[dr_pretentious]

Dan's set of famous scientist finger puppets has seen a lot of use lately, with the result that Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Isaac Newton have become the major figures in the Grand Guignol of my kids' daily entertainment. Conrad finds it especially hilarious when Isaac Newton boasts of his accomplishments to an audience of admiring beanie babies. (I had to crib my description of Newton's CV from Neil DeGrasse Tyson's charming summary.) Gareth demanded that I give a performance for Dan this evening: "Now say the part about, 'And then I turned 26!'" The sentence that titles this blog post is entirely Gareth's invention. He likes to tack it onto the end of the discovery of gravity.

Conrad discovered verb tenses just last week. He narrates what he's doing a lot, so we got to listen to his thought process as he chased a helium balloon around the living room: "Get boon, get boon, get boon. Got boon!" He was so surprised at what he'd said, he let go of the balloon string to concentrate on repeating himself. I understand calculus about as well as he does, but I know a developmental leap when I see one.

Comments

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten that moment until just now, so it was probably right after Gareth was born, when I wandered in a haze...well, an even thicker haze than the one I wander in these days. Because you'd think something as funny as that was would be unforgettable.

I have no idea where the deity finger puppets went. Now would be a great time to bring them back into circulation. I'm pretty sure Conrad wouldn't choke on them. Really, though, they'd interface better with a Carl Jung finger puppet than a Sigmund Freud one. Alas, Jung just wasn't odd-looking enough (http://www.google.com/search?q=images+carl+jung&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnso&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=Yq2kT96ZCOmW6AGYxtCsBA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CA4Q_AUoAQ&biw=1382&bih=677) to become iconic.