Curious George Makes Earth Day Happen

I knew what day it was today and figured I had to do something good for the environment. I mean I wasn’t going to pledge a Billion Acts of Green, but I could at least do one more act of kindness other than recycling. You really can’t be selfish today. It was Earth Day. Earth … it’s a pretty big planet. You’re supposed to think of the bigger picture, at least for today. You’re supposed to think about Earth.  It’s probably the only planet that has chocolate, so gotta do what you gotta do.

So I thought I would do something involving nature. I could plant a tree. It would make up for all that driving around back and forth in a gas guzzler. I don’t own a Prius. It’s too small to house the Guat Posse. They’re also way out of my poor writer price range. Most hybrids and electric cars are, but I’m sure when I’m rolling in it I’ll upgrade. But I’m not that bad. California has strict emission laws to keep everyone in check, but I’m the vapors coming out of my exhaust aren’t that breathable, so I thought planting a tree would be good. But I had nowhere to plant it. I don’t have a yard. I don’t even have a house. I’ve been in a state of homeless transition for a while, having to live at my parents house. Stupid Craigslist housing section, you’ve let me down.

So I couldn’t plant a tree, but I still wanted to do something involving nature. Then it hit me. Literally it hit me, my one year-old likes emptying things out of boxes and bags, and not in a gentle way. So as I was pondering this whole Earth Day contribution a small Curious George packet of tomato seeds landed on my face. I thought this is the perfect Earth Day activity for us.

 

The origins of our future plant were kept in here.

 

My son wanted to examine the seeds. My daughter wanted to taste them.

 

And so our little Earth Day project began as we added soil to a recycled cottage cheese container.

 

After we added the seeds, baby sister wanted to get in on the action.

 

We added the final touch … and they waited, and waited, and waited.

 

Both of my kids were pretty excited about using gardening accessories and planting something that would grow. But when plants didn’t sprout out within the hour, it was kind of a bummer for them. However my son recalled a Curious George episode and told his little sister that the plant needed more time. A long time. He told his sister: “Tomorrow. Tomorrow the plant will come.”

 

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Sandbox List Adventure VI: Curious George Strikes Again

I never would have thought a monkey would inspire so many adventures. But apparently if it happens on Curious George, chances are that my son is definitely interested in adding that adventure to his Sandbox List. Well in truth anything on PBS and The Sprout Channel tends to get his curiosity going.

Just wish the flu wasn’t so powerful. It’s been tough to kick this one. I’ve battled 12 rounds and it had me down for the count, but I’m back up again, thanks to multiple trips to the CVS in my proper middle-of-the-night sweats and a t-shirt uniform. I may have looked crappy, but I’m doing my best to try to regain my energy so that it meets my son’s everyday standards. I think I need more vitamins. Even though I’m finally turning a corner the crappy-sick feeling continues attacking my immune system, but adventure and a four-year old do not wait for you to be at 100 percent. So I cowboy-ed up and tackled another item on The List. Something requiring worms.

Yeah that’s right … worms. And you know me. I needed a little assistance, because slimy crawly creatures and The Guat … they don’t mix. I mean Curious George didn’t need any help from The Man in the Yellow Hat. But it’s a cartoon. The Guats are living in a little bit more challenging circumstances, but we did all right on our first fishing expedition. We may not have caught any fish that day, and my son may have been a little disappointed, but at least we had no hooking eye-gauging incidents with the fishing pole or falling in the lake accidents, and that’s what really mattered. A successful failure. Well probably not. Catching a fish would have been totally cool, because you know that Curious George caught three of them. But maybe it will happen on our next fishing adventure, you know when there are no suspect teenage characters throwing pinecones in the lake, scaring the fish. Yeah … we definitely need a teenage-free lake environment.

 

Hiking up the hill, having our Andy Griffith Show-Opie moment.

 

 

Teaching his sister the ins and outs of his new fishing pole … well at least everything he saw on Curious George.

 

 

My son practicing the reeling part of catching a fish.

 

 

Getting some pointers from his dad before he gets ready to cast his line.

 

 

The excitement was building and he was ready to do this on his own. I was worried about the sharp hook at the end, but he assured me he was being careful as he checked his fishing equipment one last time.

 

 

His sister was more interested in yelling at the ducks than our fishing adventure.

 

The ducks that caused all the commotion.

 

The Waiting Game. Something that required a lot of Goldfish Crackers and inventive stories on how he would catch all kinds of fish. We lasted about twenty-five minutes before he lost all hope and wanted to play Angry Birds. Better luck next time. Definitely. And there will be a next time. He assured me. “We just need more worms, mom. Curious George had a lot of worms and a bigger lake.”

 

 

 

 

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Thanks to Curious George and Mighty Machines One Gets Checked Off The Sandbox List

It all started with Curious George and Mighty Machines. I wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal, but according to my four-year old son, it was … it definitely was because Curious George and Mighty Machines rocks.

They may be an everyday occurrence in New York, Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco. No big deal. Just a regular day from point A to point B. But here … in my little part of the Golden State it’s not very common. We’re a car community. That’s how I was raised, on wheels. Either on a car or bus, but always on wheels.

So when my son suggested that he wanted to take a trip on a subway train just like the one that Curious George took to get to the zoo and the one that was featured on an episode of Mighty Machines, I thought we really need to go to the supermarket, but I remembered my goals, self-improvement projects, bucket list and “resolutions” for the 2013 New Year and thought … definitely a Sandbox List Urban Adventure.  I can always go to the market at night, when the kids are asleep and mom is watching a saucy Univision novela. It’s a good Costco sweatpants night. They have a relaxed dress code at VONS.

So that was the plan. And the thing is my son didn’t really care about the destination, he just cared about the ride. The idea of riding a train blew him away. We’ve been on miniature steamer trains, and trains that go around children’s parks, but never a subway train, never the Curious George method of transportation, so you could imagine his cartwheel-jumping-in-the-air excitement when we arrived at the station. But you could also imagine the humdrum-crabby expressions of all the regular riders … ages 30-50. I could tell he looked a little confused, probably wondering why everyone wasn’t as excited as he was, I mean we were on the subway train for crying out loud. These people were going about their I-can’t-believe-this-is-another-crappy-day business and it showed as they rode the train. But I tried to keep the urban adventure positive for my son. I packed plenty of Goldfish crackers.

 

 

The entrance

 

When we got to the ticket counter, he wanted to buy the tickets himself. Pushing buttons is a big thing.

 

Ready to go downstairs and catch the train.

 

Is that our train? Is that our train? Is that our train? Is that our train? … No. It’s not.

 

My son … checking out our destination.

 

My son … loving the ride, eyes wide open, looking at the tunnels as we zoomed by. No need for the Goldfish crackers. My daughter on the other hand … she needed a few extras.

 

We arrived at our destination and rode up the escalators to check out the scene.

 

While walking around town, we ran into Iron Man, my son decided to introduce himself. He never thought he’d see a superhero on our Sandbox List adventure.

 

We decided to match up our footprints and handprints with those of big Hollywood stars. My son thought Jack Nicholson had big feet.

 

After a while … it was back to the trains … back home.

 

But after all that IronMan, Shrek, Walk of Fame, and movie star excitement, the best part of the day was seeing my son super excited about his train coming into the station.