You Should See

This really is my favorite thing I do all year.


You should see how creative they are.

Evil-Mrs.-Noodle-attempting-to-steal-all-the-chicken-in-Fried-Chicken-World-for-her-soup kind of creative. You should see how fun it is to have lengthy conversations with a group of eight year-olds about character development. My favorite thing.


You should see the way they flock to the stage on Friday night to show off all their new skills to their parents and friends and perfect strangers. It would make you proud.


You should see how wonderful these kids are to each other.

At the end of each day we all gather and have they share what they learned. You would not believe the whooping and hollering when a kid shows off a new skill. They don't care if their dance move is wobbly, or if their improv game makes no sense, they are so dang proud of their new buddies for being brave. It doesn't even sound real, but I assure you it is.

It makes me want to wave their flag in the faces of everyone who bemoans "kids these days" and their supposed entitled selfish ways.

Can't stop thinking about

  Please Somebody Buy Me This F--ing Bear Sleeping Bag

Perfect for cub naps

and work naps.

And general warmth-during-the-winter-months naps.

Thank you, Buzzfeed.

***

 A few months ago I was shopping for a friend's baby shower 

and for my nephew's Christmas present.

Someone let me loose in a Babies R Us.

I displayed heretofore unexpected self-restraint.

 [I did not purchase the above-pictured bear suit.]

 Because it is impractical

and unnecessary.

I refrained.

Praise be.

~~~

So then my mom sends me this little beaut

  and I had this wonderful and terrible realization

that we totally missed the matching bear suit boat.

Go ahead,

picture a full-grown hominid bear

with that baby cub on its hip.

What. a. dream.

Now if only the grown-human sized bear suit costed a pretty penny less,

(many many pretty pennies)

we'd be well on our way.

That is all.

An Ode to an Alleyway

This door lived in the otherwise unassuming alley behind my building.  It was probably the only notable thing about it until one day...

... I noticed this little friend hiding away back there.