Inspired by Finding Dory, Griffin and Maggie created a movie together about the ocean. Here’s their plot summary:
A person is going on a boat and catches a fish. He roasted the fish on his little boat and then he ate it. Then a giant comes and he eats some beads and then he eats the person and then he turns into a clown.
This is Griffin’s first stop-motion animated short feature. In the director’s words:
This is based on my magnets and I’m really into space so I wanted to make this movie just for everyone.
Griffin was so excited after making this that he now says he wants to be a “movie maker” when he grows up.
During an epic game of Munchkin Deluxe, Maggie was on a rampage and I was getting pummeled by nasty curses. After drawing yet-another card of doom, I exclaimed, “Ugh, I’m getting knocked down at every turn!”
Maggie, chuckling with evil glee, countered with, “And I’m getting knocked UP at every turn!”
Back in February of 2014, I posted Two Plates, a scientific investigation into the culinary cleanliness of Griffin and Maggie. CliffsNotes: Griffin made a gargantuan mess, but Maggie didn’t.
One of the hypotheses of this experiment wasn’t testable until today:
1. Developmental stages. When Maggie is four, she will be just as messy. Was Griffin more fastidious when he was one? Memories are fuzzy and unreliable, but I don’t think so. We can test this in a few years with another set of pictures. (Strawberry shortcake for breakfast, February 15, 2017!)
Admittedly, I technically blew the experiment by serving strawberry shortcake a day early this year (I’m not sure why we had our Valentine’s Day breakfast on the 15th in 2014). But in the spirit of our anti-science (post-science?) times, I present our results anyway.
February 14, 2017 photo of Maggie’s place setting after her breakfast. Maggie is four years, nine months old.
February 14, 2017 photo of Griffin’s place setting after his breakfast. Griffin is seven years, ten months old.
The developmental hypothesis does not appear to hold. Maggie still has the cleaner area, though Griffin’s kept most of his detritus on his plate. (He also ate more, and with more enthusiasm, than she did.) But, clearly, mega-messes are not hardwired into four-year-olds.
I should add, too, that while Griffin still tends to be the messier eater, he is far better at keeping other areas of the house clean. At cleanup time, Maggie suffers from chronic debilitating attacks of exhaustion. Griffin, by contrast, will often tackle cleanup without being asked, rarely complains when we request a cleaning, and is developing a good sense of judgment about what will pass parental inspection.
Just one picture from this year’s Luminary Loppet:
Griffin, upon passing plastic statues of Mary and Joseph in a nativity scene:
“Are those carved from butter?”
We were utterly befuddled until we remembered the popular booth at the state fair where they carve the head of Princess Kay of the Milky Way into a 90 pound block of butter.
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Griffin, while reading some product packaging at the dinner table:
What’s a G-M-O?
Goofy … Mohawk … Ogre?
I like the way this guy thinks.
Griffin and Maggie both love jokes and riddles. Griffin, Maggie, and Grandpa Jeff often exchange video riddles with each other—this is worth its own post sometime—and we have a children’s joke book that we often read before or after dinner, resulting in lots of silliness.
Maggie has recently begun telling her own jokes, which appear to be a combination of the knock-knock joke and riddle jokes, like “Why’d the chicken cross the road?” The humor is often opaque (or translucent) to an adult ear, but I love it that she is playing with the genre.
Here are two recent examples:
Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Dog.
Dog who?
Why did the dog go on a walk?
I don’t know. Why?
He sneaked out the door to get his other bone!Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Door.
Door who?
Why did the door open the door?
I don’t know. Why?
To get to the other door!
