Olive and Lucy Visit, Garden Bar, Early Spring Decoration

Update - February 17 to February 23, 2019

-- Olive Turns Six Months and Lucy Imitates a Baby

Imitation is Flattery

Imagination is among the strongest motivators for someone turning five years old. Lucy has been thrilled to have a baby sister and delights in her ability to make Olive laugh and make faces at her antics. She has also developed an interest in playing "baby," up to and including the baby-talk so incoherent that we don't know what she's saying. Lucy has been communicating in whole sentences for a long time. She, in some cases, has clearly rehearsed what she is about to say so that her point will be clear and accepted.

Recently, she approached Papa and said, "When I get tired of blowing up this balloon, I will wipe off the slobber, and you can blow it up for me." This caught Papa off-guard as he had no idea that slobber was an issue for her or that she should anticipate it was an issue for him. It turns out that earlier in the day, Nana had refused to help blow up Lucy's balloon until she had, "wiped the slobber off of it," 

Taking that episode as guidance, when she approached another adult with a balloon-blowing requirement, she anticipated resistance to "slobber," and offered the bargaining chip that she would "wipe it," prior to Papa having to take over. This shows a lot of forethought for a four-year-old trying to get some cooperation from an adult. 

-- When is a Four-Year-Old Smarter Than a President?

Our dolt of a President went to North Korea and managed to not get anything done. He hadn't rehearsed an offer, or a compromise offer, or a quid pro quo, or anything when meeting with the dolt running North Korea. The US President didn't have the common sense of a four-year-old to anticipate the objections and offer a compromise solution. Lucy gets it; the dolt does not.

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READ my Blog "The Books of Richard F Wright" (Books, Bookstores, Writing)     

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-- When is a Salad Bar not a Salad Bar?

Garden Bar?

Patti frequently takes advantage of good salad bars when we come across them. She recalled recently that Ruby Tuesday had a good salad bar and so we took a break during an errand run to have a quick lunch at Ruby Tuesday at Lincoln Plaza. Patti went for the salad bar as part of her meal and it was then that I noticed almost no "salad" came back on her first plate. As I glanced at the menu I realized they call it a Garden Bar, not a Salad Bar. I had never noticed this. Maybe they have called it "garden" for a long time; but, I just got it.

Patti's "salad" had no tomatoes, lettuce, onions, etc., although she said they were available. She preferred to go with the egg salad, beets, beans, fruit, etc., instead of the inevitable greens. A salad bar is not a salad bar when it's a "Garden Bar." Now I know too.

-- Helping Olive With Her Books

Turn the Page

In our house, we do a lot of reading. Patti has a preference for thrillers and mysteries and things like that. I prefer things like history, science, biographies, autobiographies, and not so much of the fiction or science fiction. When Lucy visits we average from three to six books each visit, not counting the re-reads that she requires on her favorite books.

Now that Olive is with us each week I got her started reading her first book. With no coaching she was quickly flipping the pages of "Wonder Horse," and when necessary, ripping the pages for extra emphasis. None of the pages left the binding entirely, but some did suffer minor tears and abrasions. (All easily repaired).

Help from Papa

She's off to a good start and I expect she will develop her own favorites in the months and years ahead. In due time I plan to have Lucy read to Olive, which would be ideal. While shopping this week, Patti and I found two more books, which we bought and plan to show to Lucy when we get back from our vacation. It's always good to have an occasional surprise available to keep things going.



-- Out With the Winter Scene and In With the Spring Scene

Even though the snow is still a foot deep outside, we sprang forward with the mantle display by taking out the winter-scape and inserting a spring-scape. It's a bit early for the spring motif, but we were in the mood. It's got spring flowers, berries on the trees, and patches of green grass. Strangely, the house feels warmer.

READING UPDATE: When I saw this title I wasn't sure how these two famous Americans could actually be a topic for a book combining their lives into one story. I have lots of books about Mark Twain and written by Mark Twain and I have a lot of books about and by Teddy Roosevelt. But, the connection between them seemed vague to me. In his book, "Mark Twain and The Colonel," Philip McFarland manages to hang both stories on the fast-changing circumstances of the first decade of the 20th Century. Although they came from different backgrounds and developed great variance in their views of American life, they both were larger than life, had a lot to say, and they were not afraid of taking a stand and taking action. It is these qualities that bind them together as they raced across the border between the 19th and 20th Centuries.