Ussins

Mago tends to like old-style “chiptune” Nintendo music. This is pleasing to his father. I played for him my mp3 album ripped from the game Legacy of the Wizard - explaining to him that this title more or less means “remember the wizard” - whatever that is supposed to mean, ha! - and he liked it. Here’s an exemplary track to accompany your blog reading.

(download .mp3, ~1.2 MB)

I also explained to Mago that this is from a game I played as a kid. On the same drive (this was all quite a while ago - but every now and then he’ll ask me to play it again) a song from my collection came on entitled ShadowFire -

(download .mp3, ~2.2 MB)

- a Commodore 64 tune I found and burned. After he learned this was from a game I hadn’t played, Mago said:

I played ShadowFire! when I was a kid.

- which he reminds me every time the song is played.  On a different occasion while I was playing with him before bed, he said:

Daddy, I want to come live with you at work.

Whoops.

There’s a wall in the bathroom without an if-I-knew-the-name-of-it-it-would-probably-be-there thing that would keep water from spilling into the wall, and spiders from coming out of the wall - though we haven’t seen but very few spiders (as opposed to dozens) since politely asking them to find somewhere else to live - if you have faith, this works! - but by those spiders he has seen coming out from under that wall, he has dubbed it “The bug wall”.

Nem-nem has started waving “hello.”

Tia reports that the other day she set out to make a bed time chart for Mago, of photographs of him at each step of the routine. He had skipped his nap that day so she was hoping to move through things quickly and early.   She led him through the routine - going potty, brushing teeth, reading a book, changing into pajamas, singing (he stood at the head of his bed and sang a single note for this step), praying, being tucked into bed - taking several photographs at each step.  Going through the motions was acceptable enough to him that he went to bed without a fuss.  We usually can’t get him to stay in bed until 8:45 or 9, but he was tucked in at 7:30 and stayed there!

Two evenings ago as I was holding Nem-nem she saw her shadow on a curtain in front of me, and was delighted - as if something alive were in front of her - and she started humming at it and waving her arm. I never capture the best of this stuff (by the time I get my recorder the best has passed), but I did get some of it:

(Download mp3, ~33KB)

A few days ago Mago explained to me about a movie he watched. Here is that:

(Download mp3, ~780KB)

[Note: it turns out these are at a MHz rate not always playable by the Adobe Flash player (I’m guessing older versions of the plugin). If these sound funny from the player here, you may download the mp3 and listen to it in any other player.]

Tia has clarified for me that “Eglor” is his way of saying what they called Bilbo - a burglar. She also said he absolutely loved it - this was the cartoon rendition of The Hobbit done I think in the 70’s (that rendition was awful - my opinion - but you can’t keep the magic of these stories out of any rendition - it’s the stuff of magic). He watched it twice.

“Eglor” sounds so much like a name for a character you would find in these series that as Mago related this to me I wondered if I’d simply forgotten about some character. I’ve heard it said that good writing is remembering things wrong - so here’s to the tale of Eglor.

This morning around 3 AM Tia nudged me to go to Mago, who came out of his room for some reason. I opened the door and he stood there, and seeing me, he started whining and throwing a tantrum - he wants to see mommy, not me. Sorry, friend. I took him back in his room and his tantrum mounted; finally I got out of him that he’s looking for Snowman (his plush toy). I searched around the house (I wouldn’t but he’d been searching and asked for help). I came back and found Snowman at the foot of his bed. I started putting Mago’s dinosaur blanket back on him to meet another tantrum from him; he insisted I have to be in the chair, like mom, not beside his bed, to put the blanket on. I’d indulge this if he weren’t throwing a tantrum, and I prompted him that I respond to a big boy voice. He kept his tantrum up so I simply put the blanket on, and he was relieved to see it can go properly on from beside the bed (as well as the chair). I thought I’d capitalize on the learning opportunity:

Did daddy put the blanket on you from beside the bed?
Yeah.
Did he put the blanket on right?
Yeah.
What did you learn from that?
Stop hitting.
Okay.

I gave him a hug.

Do you want another idea?
Yeah.
Did you learn that daddy can put the blanket on right from beside the bed?
Yeah.

I snuggled him for a while.

Did you look for mom?
Yeah?
Who came?
Daddy.
Did daddy help you?
Yeah.
What did you learn from that?
Loving Jesus.
Okay.

I can see as I’m writing this it’d be better to prompt him for details of events - he’d put it together more, he’d be doing more thinking. I’m doing better with this though.

Audio recordings Copyright 2008 Richard Alexander Hall all rights reserved.