Stupid horsies

In keeping with my fine tradition of deep understanding of All Things Sporting, I declared today that the Melbourne Cup would be won by "A Brown Horsie".

Of course, which flippin' horsie wins?

This flippin' horsie:

The only non-brown one on the track.

It wasn't too bad. No-one was going to let me bet on my horsie choice anyway.

He's a bright boy

I'm not sure when kids are supposed to start asking these questions, but I've recently had conversations with six-year-old Primus about:

• The concept of nothingness. His contention: "There is no such thing as nothing". My reply: "well, what have you got left in a bag when you had one apple, and someone takes it out?". I had to point out that if there was no such thing as nothing, then you wouldn't be able to take out that last apple because you wouldn't be able to have nothing left. He seemed to get it - there is such a thing as nothing, but it's not the same kind of thing as "things". I refrained from hitting him with the concept of Concepts.
• The extent and composition of the universe. This went along the lines
  P: "Daddy, where does Gold come from"
  Me: "They dig it out of the ground"
  P: "But how did it get there?"
  Me: "It was there when the Earth formed" (which cued a sidebar discussion about what elements are and some examples of elements vs. things that are made of combinations of elements)
  P: "But how did it get into the stuff that made the earth?"
  Me: "Well, it was created when another star exploded..." (which started a discussion of nuclear fusion and how elements are created in stars, which he kind of understood because he remembered the They Might Be Giants song I sometimes sing them in the bath, followed by the explanation that heavier elements like gold and iron are only created in supernovae)
  P: "Ah. But where did the stuff that other star was made of come from?"
  Me: "Well, that's what the universe was made of after the big bang. It was mostly hydrogen with a bit of helium and smaller bits of stuff like lithium and boron"
  
  
  And from there it got a bit complicated, with his queries prompting me to explain the big bang and how the universe was really small early on and grew into what we see today. And how the Universe had a defined starting point, and about the possible heat death of the universe and the Big Rip.
  
  P: "But what was outside the really small thing?"
  Me: "There was no outside - that tiny little thing was the universe."
  P: "But what was outside? There has to be something."
  Me: "Nothing. You can't have anything outside the universe. The universe is all there is!"
  P: "But there's not such thing as nothing!"

I've got to say, this is a lot more interesting than the pure "Why?" phase, even though it's essentially the same game.

Bare Necessities III

All Secundus needed to take to bed with him were three matchbox cars, a larger metal ute (or "Bute" as he called it), two superballs, a toy spider (plush, not plastic), a hand rake (part of a sandcastle building set), a train ticket, and of course Dog and Baby Dog.

New developments

Well, little Tertia (aka. E.) is starting to move around. Not crawling, but more than rolling. Squirming, I'd say. She can move across the room, just never in the way she plans. Which causes her endless frustration because she JUST WANTS TO EAT THAT BASTARD DINOSAUR AND SHE CAN'T GET TO IT!@@!*%$*(I&*^.

Secundus (aka. A.) had a new first as well. He Delegated for the first time. Just before dinnertime, he and his cousin (who was visiting) were snacking, because they were apparently (so they informed us in their two-year-old way) starving to death. Secundus was asked to take some of the rice crackers to Primus (aka. D. - remember these, because I'll probably be using these in this blog from now on after having seen Stardust, which was cool, and has encouraged the already existing in-house habit between myself and Mrs B when we want to refer to the little varmints in a coded manner*). Anyways, when I asked Secundus to take some to his brother and the little cousin's elder sister J., he immediately got two of them out, passed them to his cousin, and told her to take them in to Primus and J., which she immediately proceeded to do. I beamed with pride - my little guy is becoming a Slacker, just like his old man.

*Other options have included Primo and Duplo, or Pint-size and half-pint when we just had two.

Whole lotta not blogging going on

Not a lot going down lately, so no urge to blog. Stuff that's happened:

• A. is toilet training. Argh! the horror!
• D. performed at Town Hall in his junior choir. They were exceedingly cute.
• E. has taken to howling blue murder when she doesn't get her way. Such as when she gets put to bed. She's howling now, because her brutal and cruel parents have put her to bed.
• Empty staff positions filled. Yay! Don't have to do no personnel stuff for a while. Note to self: glue staff to chair to avoid having to re-hire.
• Taking two weeks off work for school holidays. I intend to indulge in some sitting, and maybe some hangin' around.

That's all for now. Catch you in a few weeks' time.

Learning to talk

A. is at that most entertaining time when he's starting to talk a lot, and starting to become understandable, but still at an entertainingly low level of verbal accuracy. Some recent gems:

• "Bibby Bec! Bibby Bec!" when looking for auntie Bec
• Cucumbers have been variously referred to as "Doobadabbas" and "Cubacubbas" as he gets more of the consonants in line
• There is a crane yard near our house that we occasionally drive by. It's very exciting for boys who are fans of Cranky the Crane. Thus, the cries of "Ganky Gane! Ganky Gane!" when we drove by yesterday. Poor old Ganky has been a popular toy lately with A., leading to some water damage when he was played with outside in the rain.
  
• D is becoming a fan of Guitar Hero now that he can actually play it a bit. So both boys were singing along to Cherry Pie. A.'s rendition of the lyrics "She's my cherry pie": "Cheers my beppy bye"
  

Long long weekend

Took an extra day off for the APEC long weekend. Memorable highlights:

• bought a 24" monitor that was on sale for $599. Now we've got to get the Mac Mini to go with it.
  
• D. quote (while playing with his soccer medals and awarding them to people): "Baby E. wins the Nobel Prize for Kickboxing!" (further research indicates it is a simpsons quote, but I found it hilarious when he said it anyway).
• A. being discovered riding his bike around in the rain, wearing only socks (his galoshes had fallen off). He was thoroughly soaked.
• D's writing has massively improved - he was writing a lot this weekend.
• Saw Ratatouille with the kids. Quite entertaining, and while it lacked some of the substance of previous Pixar movies, it was entertaining, and beautifully animated.
• Tomb Raider Anniversary edition gave me vertigo and sleep deprivation.
  

Off to Canberra for a conference later in the week, to be joined by J and kids at the weekend for Exciting Times In Sunny Canberra.