Researcher Ryder

The middle muppet has a way with animals. While most children are shying away from dogs that are as big as they are the middle guy never hesitates to ask the owner of that dog if he can pet the cute puppy (as he calls it). All three muppets love animals and always have but that love became an obsession the day that we found out we had the National Geographic Wild channel. Instead of getting excited about watching Friday morning cartoons they were up at the crack of dawn to watch Nat Geo Wild. They would be pumped about Big Cat Week and soon knew more about animals than Dave or I and Google became my friend once again when they had a question that I could not answer.

The middle muppet was very excited this week to be learning about habitats. He would come home from school grab the markers and some paper and start drawing the habitat of a peacock, fish or a cheetah. I sat at the kitchen table with him asking him questions about all of the different places that animals lived, what they ate and who else lived in the habitat with him. He sat and talked to me for 20 minutes and amazed me with all of his animal knowledge he said that he had been doing research at school and that is how he knew so much… I don’t really remember doing research in Kindergarden!

Yesterday I came to pick up the middle muppet at school, his teacher said to me as I was collecting him “Your son taught me two new things today!” Hoping that one of them wasn’t the fart game or something like that I cautiously asked her about what the middle muppet was so knowledgable about. She told me that she was asking the children what habitat a sea lion lived in, she was holding up a picture of the sea lion and the middle muppets hand was in the air before she finished the question. “Teacher…” he said in his sweet middle muppet voice “That is a beluga whale, it lives in the ocean the same as a sea lion” She turned the picture around and sure enough on the back was written beluga whale. Later on in the day she was asked by another student if cheetah’s could climb trees. Not knowing the answer to the question she decided to see if anyone else knew if cheetah’s could climb trees. Of course the middle guy knew the answer to that question, he told her that he had watched a documentary on Nat Geo Wild and he had seen a rhino chase a cheetah up in to a tree.

The teacher was so impressed by the middle muppets animal knowledge that she gave him a special award for teaching her something she didn’t know. Maybe the middle muppet will be chasing animals doing his own documentaries on Nat Geo Wild when he grows up.

Adventures in Angry Bird Land

The middle muppet had his first assessment of the year at school and so this past week we got to go in to speak to his teacher and see some of the work that he has been doing at school. Now the oldest muppet doesn’t tell you anything about school, you literally have to pry information out of him so I always looked forward to these meetings with his teachers so I had some clue what was going on. The middle muppet  on the other hand tells all.

On any given day I know which students have been good or bad, who has ordered lunch that day and what country each child will be spending the winter holiday in. He tells me about all of the projects that they are working on in each subject and can retell the stories that had been read on each day including the author and just incase I needed to know the illustrator as well.

The middle muppets teacher told us that he is a very serious student and is meticulous at everything he does. He always wants to be doing it right and while the rest of the class is running around in madness the middle guy can usually be found sitting where he is suppose to be waiting for instructions.

She showed us his first published book which was entitled “Adventures in Angry Bird Land” As a mother of Angry Bird addicts I cringed slightly expecting my dark secret of letting my children play too many video games to come pouring out of my 5 year olds book.

The middle muppets teacher said she was captivated to learn more about this Angry Bird Land and where it was located. She asked the middle muppet questions about what country it was in, whether it was close to Lego Land, Harry Potter World or Disney Land. She wanted to know if the middle muppet had visited this place and what he did while he was there. The middle muppet was very quiet after being bombarded with all of these questions and then simply said “Teacher I made it up… it isn’t real it is only in my imagination!”

She said she was so impressed that he had written about something that he had imagined, usually she gets stories about things that have happened to the students in real life, like going to the beach or playing with friends. She was very pleased with his progress.

It was rewarding to know that the middle muppet is using his creative genes already and that maybe I am not such a bad mother for letting him play angry birds!

Use the Force

I sit at my computer checking email when all the sudden the middle muppet comes flying down the stairs. He is wearing his hoodie, pants and a t-shirt around his waist, he stands up light sabre at the ready. Suddenly he clutches his throat as if he is choking, I hear the youngest muppet walking down the stairs singing Darth Vader’s theme song. He has his hand is extended out in front of him and is using the force to choke the middle muppet! The youngest releases him from his death grip and they start battling with their light sabres. The middle muppet yells “I used the force to throw that cabinet at you” the youngest looks as if he is using the force to stop it. All day they play this game!

Star Wars has taken over my house!! When we walk in to the club house the middle muppet waves his hands open pretending to use the force to open the automatic sliding doors. The muppets do not go anywhere with out their light sabres because it is a Jedi’s weapon and if he is caught with out it he could be killed. While grocery shopping this week the youngest muppet was sitting in the front of the cart his arm extended out to the shelf as we drove by something he wanted, when I asked him what he was doing he said “I am trying to force those cookies to me.” It took all I had not to burst out laughing because he was so deadly serious. No one can accuse my children of not having good imaginations.

Last night after dinner I was cleaning up the kitchen, preparing for the battle that I would have to endure when I asked them to pick up all the toys in the living room area, suddenly I had a brilliant idea. I came out of the kitchen yelling “Master Jedi, Master Jedi, I have an urgent mission for you!” I told them that I needed all the little creatures put back in their cages before they started to attack us, I also said that only the bravest Jedi could handle such a mission.

All three muppets were running around at light speed cleaning up all the toys, with out the usual grumbling about having to tidy up! I continued the game until bath time, all three Jedi’s hopped in to the bath with out a fight. I am very impressed with my Jedi mind tricking skills and I hope that I am able to continue to use them for the next few weeks. Then I will have to come up with something else, these muppets are always keeping you on your toes!

This is Halloween

This is our third halloween in the desert, it is very different from halloween in Canada. First off it is still 35 degrees at night here so there is no worry about your little ones not staying warm enough, I sometimes worry about them over heating. Second in this country their are so many different cultures living here and most don’t celebrate halloween. It really so much bigger in North America then it is anywhere else in the world. We have some Aussie friends who say that halloween is starting to become a big bigger over there but for most people the thought of sending their children out to collect candy from strangers is a little bizarre.

The boys have been waiting for halloween since the first of October. They have changed their minds about what costumes they were wearing about a 100 times and the oldest muppet had been coaching the two younger ones on how Trick or Treating was to be done. Every day since I put up the halloween decorations the youngest muppet has been asking me “Mummy is today Pumpkin day?” Finally Halloween day arrived, three excited boys danced around in their costumes waiting for the sun to go down.

In our compound we have quite a few Western families and there are a lot of non western families that get in to the spirit whether they celebrate halloween in their home countries or not. The muppets were eager to get out and Trick or Treat after about 50 children bombarded our door shortly after 5:00pm. The three muppets were joined by their friends as they hopped from villa to villa collecting sweet treats along the way. People sat outside on their front steps handing out candy, not something you would ever do in Canada unless it was an unseasonably warm October.

Batman, Army Man, Mummy, Zombie and a Vampire slowly made their way back to our villa about an hour later lugging big bags of candy talking about what they were going to dress up as for next halloween. This morning I was woken up buy all three muppets climbing in to my bed, I was expecting them to ask for candy but instead the oldest muppet just smiled at me and said “You know what Mum? I really can’t wait until Christmas!”

Happy Halloween everybody, bring on the next holiday 😉