Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Polar Bears...

As part of the Learning Enrichment Program he is in at school, Zach was on public access cable TV tonight presenting a report he put together on polar bears.

I was hoping his presentation would more closely mirror Steve Carell's "Wildlife Expert" bit from his days as a correspondent on The Daily Show, but I thought it was pretty solid nonetheless.

The sound isn't very clear, so here's the transcript:

"My name is Zachary, I'm from Amosland, my project is on polar bears, my favorite fact I learned is that polar bears sometimes have snowball fights with each other and my favorite part of doing this project was doing the true or false test."

Joy of the Game

Ben played in his first two T-ball games this weekend. He's going to need some work on his swing. And fielding the ball. And throwing. Baserunning needs some work, too.

But much to our delight, he seems to be enjoying it immensely. At least to this point, he approaches the game with a barely-contained joyful enthusiasm. Last year, he seemed to like the game well enough, but this year, he's just thrilled with it.

Another big plus: after being assigned to the Braves last year, this year he gets to play for the Phillies.

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Last night, Linda, the kids and I joined a bunch of the kids' cousins at the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

The exhibit included props and costumes from the Star Wars movies, as well as interactive stations which demonstrated R2 D2-like robotics, vehicles which use magnetic levitation, the planning and construction of Curasant-like cities, and other advances similar to the futuristic technologies depicted in the Star Wars universe.

Zach's favorite station featured a computer game which was played by placing special cards on a rotating table. Each tile represented a building -- things like power generation stations, or farming machinery, or a shelter. A camara pointed at the table, and rendered the buildings on the monitor, creating a virtual spaceport, or moisture farm community, or Jawa settlement. During the course of the game, the player had to re-align the buildings to maintain the optimal balance between various production, security, and social factors. Very cool game.

Phoebe liked riding the "Air-chair", which floated on a cushion of air (not unlike Luke Skywalker's landspeeder.)

And Ben's highlight was undoubtedly when we bought him a souvenier light saber on the way out of the building.

I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of a Princess Amadala exhibit, which (naturally) would have involved Natalie Portman look-alikes.

Freeloaders

I arrived home from work today to news that we have freeloaders living in our back yard. Much like the robins that took up residence over our outdoor floodlights last spring, three baby bunnies have made the Houserspawn(tm) back yard their home.

The kids seem pretty unfazed by our new little friends, but the news put me in Bunny Defense Mode. Almost immediately after Linda told me about the rabbits, I felt this impulse to protect these vulnerable little animals like some kind of surrogate parent.

I found myself imploring Linda not to let the neighborhood kids know about the bunnies, for fear that one of the kids might inadvertantly harm them. And checking out the window periodically to make sure they're safe. And worrying about the cats that roam the neighborhood. And fighting the compulsion even now to go outside and double check that the gate to the back yard is latched.

I am struck by just how deep this primal monkey instinct is imbedded in humanity. Must protect small, defenseless things. I am entirely invested in the well being of these rabbits that I didn't even know existed a few hours ago.

When Sidewalks Attack

The first day of Spring might have officially been on March 20th, but it's only now that Houserspawn(tm) Nation is recognizing the change in seasons.

We can now officially acknowledge that Spring has arrived because the kids have started to accumulate injuries of the outside-playing, shorts-wearing, sidewalk-stumbling variety.
The two most recent mishaps:

- Friday, April 11th - Zach stumbled and skinned his knee walking home from school.
- Sunday, April 14th - Ben fell off his scooter, scraping up his face.

Linda tells me that Phoebe also did a fall-and-scrape last week, but since it didn't draw blood, it doesn't make the list.

Opening Day

With Zach on the DL for a few days (mild fever), Ben took his place in the stands at the Phillies home opener today.

It was a pretty lousy day for a game. It was cold, and while it was never really in danger of being delayed by rain, the game was played in a constant drizzle.

Nevertheless, all of the excitement involved in eating hot dogs and soft pretzels, getting a Phanatic coloring book, seeing home runs hit by Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, and ultimately seeing the Phillies lose to the Washington Nationals by a score of 11-6 was too much for Ben, who fell asleep within five minutes of getting in the car to go home.

Outward Bound

As part of our ongoing effort to get the kids to play outdoors more, I put up a basketball hoop over the weekend. (I suppose that our attempts at getting the kids involved in various athletic endeavors are becoming a recurring theme on the Houserspawn(tm) blog -- I probably need to come up with a new label for this.)

Unfortunately, the construction of the hoop had no immediate effect on Zach or Phoebe. Zach came down with a fever, and spent most of yesterday afternoon sleeping. And Phoebe promptly claimed the oversized cardboard box that the hoop came in, dragged it into the house, and used scissors and crayons to make it into a makeshift "pet shop" for some of her figurines.

Ben came up big, though, and shot some hoops with me. And once Ben was done, the 8-year-old neighbor from across the street came over and challenged me to a game of one-on-one. (I crushed him).

Conclusion: Despite our best efforts, we may not be raising the most athletically inclined kids ever.