Self Portrait at the Potty

Please click on my photo to see it on flickr with notes on it...

I was so excited that I was with Bowie when he drew this. Not just in the house but right next to him because there is a chance I might not have grasped what he was creating, his first little self portrait. When I took my art education classes, early education classes we looked at loads of drawings like these. Somehow, there is a collective knowledge about drawing that leads the majority of children to go through this step. Bowie has never seen someone else draw this way. It is fascinating to me.

Animal Masks

We found some great animal masks at the San Antonio zoo a few weeks ago. Bowie is totally immersed in pretend play, at virtually all times. It is fun but confusing trying to remember who he is (a cat, a baby, a mama dog, Neil Peart, Motorcycle Joe, a lion, a mimim, a t-rex, Aunt Destiny growing a baby) and who I am (a mama cat, a papa dog, a baby, Michele, Motorcycle Joe, a mimim). He has the littlest squeeky voice for most of these characters. So fun.

Rawk On

Rawk On, Little Lady
Originally uploaded by chasingfun.

This photo was taken by a fellow flickr'er at a show on 6th Street during sxsw. We saw lots of live music last week (well, for a family with 2 year old it was a lot for us.)

Pouring and Goo

Today we didn't leave the house once. I like to do that on Mondays. Our weekends are always pretty busy so I like to just hang about the house and tidy up to start the week off. I had three loads of dishes to wash (by hand, no machine) after a dinner with friends last night. So Bowie spent a lot of time in the kitchen at his low table. We made cornstarch goo. He loved mixing the food colors. And he did scooping practice with lentils. He even tried using his left hand, quite successfully too. He quietly put his hands in the lentils, which happily reminded me of the movie Amelie. Then he started throwing lentils (just one little handful) so we moved onto using the dust pan and broom. A fun day.

Shins

Last Wednesday Bowie went to see The Shins for the second time in his little life. The first time he was about 3 months old I think. We strapped him into his bjorn (Chris wasn't yet using a sling) and took him down to Stubb's, an outdoor venue. He slept through the opening band was awake as we danced at the very back. This week we went to the Backyard, which is now very different since that huge Lowes etc. monstrosity came in. I will say that I am extremely impressed that all the development around didn't really affect our exprience though. We had to park down below it and walk through it, but we couldn't see it and the stage still was backed with oaks. Anyway, we caught the last 3 songs of Viva Voce. The female singer played a two-necked guitar (Bowie's choice of instrument when playing GUitar Hero II), so major points there. And the other band memeber was a drummer that also sang and played guitar, so HUGE points there. Bowie wore his headgear and rode in the Kelty backpack (he's really too tall for it, and there's no way I could have carried his 33 lbs around all night) so that he could see everything. Between sets he wandered through the crowd with Chris, selecting various spots as his stage, playing air guitar saying, "I'm the guitar player for the Shins," playing air drums saying, "I'm the drummer for the Shins." We went back really quite close to the stage and watched most of the set. The last few songs we watched from the rear of the venue as Bowie tiredly rested his head on ours.

The next morning when he woke up the first thing he said was, "I liked BOTH of the drummers and their drums." And only wanted to listen to Shins songs.

The music was incredible. Chris and I have seen the Shins 4 times now and they are always a great show. And we are beyond excited about taking Bowie out more and more. Live music was a huge loss for us as we transistioned into family life. But it is clear that we have a shared love and look forward to sharing many more tunes beneath the autumn stars.

Drummer

Chris took this video yesterday morning. Bowie's drumset in his room. He plays everyday. And luckily, he is willing to wear ear protection.

Oh, and since I'm new at this mepg thing, will someone let me know if you can view the video? Thanks!