Harry Potter, Egg Soup, and Tiny Ice Cream Cones

Just a quick update on life with Mikey. 

Michael and I have almost finished the Harry Potter series. I read him the first book while I was nursing him (so it's been awhile), but we listened to the audio book recently, and we are just finishing up the 5th book. We didnt really go in order, just in the order that that library had them in, but we are almost done with all 7 (seriously just a few chapters to go). I personally LOVE the Harry Potter series. I know there are people out there that dont like them, that cant get into them because of the sorcery aspect, but me, I love them. My dad bought my brother the first book when it was still an obscure British book, he heard about it on NPR and as it was gaining fame we read it. We loved it, and we waited (impatiently) for all the other books to come out. Harry Potter became a huge part of my tween/teen years and a great bonding experience for me and my siblings. I knew that at some point I wanted to expose Michael to Harry Potter, but I thought he would be older when I did. 

Lately, I have been a little nervous to let him listen to the news. I know it sounds a bit paranoid but nothing good is on the news, and I think that as he isnt 2 yet maybe we can lay off the being informed for a little tiny bit. But we needed something to listen to in the car... we tried VeggieTales, and while the message was uplifting, I was pretty sure I was going to intentionally run my minivan off the road in an effort to avoid hearing one more song sung by a vegetable. And children's music... yeah possibly even worse than the vegetables. Enter Harry Potter. At first I thought he wasnt listening, but after a few days he started to ask for it when we got in the car. He would point to the radio and say "Mommy, listen Potter". And then tell me about Potter, about the owls, and friends, and other things. I know most of it went over his head, but some of it didnt. And his vocabulary, let's just say there are words he picked up from Harry Potter (not weird Harry Potter words), and it is great, the shear number of new words he has heard has been great for him. Then I decided we needed a visual to go with our Harry Potter listening, so I let him watch just a few minutes of the first movie, the part where Ron and Harry meet, the sorting, the first Quidditch game. Just enough to help him see Harry Potter, and you know what? When Ron entered he pointed at the screen and said "Mommy, it's Ron!"  he was so excited to see Potter and Ron, I was excited for him, so excited that Potter could come alive for him. He wont be watching any more of the movies for a good long while, but still fun. I know some will argue that there are parts of the books that are frightening for a 2 year old, and while I would agree, we skipped some, talked about how sometimes people arent nice during others, and some didnt sink it. I still think that Harry Potter is less frightening than the news has been lately, and significatly less damaging than listening to the rest of the radio (seriously is there a topic besides sex and alcohol to write a song about, yeah I am turning into my mom). 

Anyway I knew that he had been listening to Harry Potter but didnt know just how much. On sunday he picked up his toy broom and was racing around with it, saying, "Mommy I ride broom like Potter!". That's right. We may have to be Harry Potter for Halloween this year, not sure yet, but doesnt that seem just dorky enough that we might have to do it?

Since we finished or almost finished Harry Potter we are looking for another good audio book series for kids or tweens, any recommendations? We are currently listening to the BFG (or the EFG as Mikey calls it) and that has been a bit of a hit, though less interesting than Potter. I loved that book as well, and we can always move on to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from there. If you see Mikey and he tells you he is a giant that eats human beans, just know that is where he got it from. 

The other day we had a pretty crummy day. Mikey got hurt a lot, part him, part me, part, I dont know but Brian brought chinese food home for dinner, and one of the things he brought was egg drop soup. Then he went out of town and Mikey started requesting that Daddy bring him eggy soup as a present. I made a homemade version to placate him in the meantime, but Daddy pulled through and brought the soup, and he loved it. Not sure why but this kid loves egg drop soup. I love it too, but it seems strange for an almost 2 year old to request it. 

 On Fridays we usually go to storytime at 1130 and then to tacos/ice cream for lunch with our friends. This past week we didnt because storytime is on a break and we were busy so since Mikey was so good I let him pick out an ice cream treat at the grocery store. Of course he picked ice cream cones. He found these little drumsticks and he was thrilled. They are just his size, they are in a cone, and they have caramel, which apparently he loves or so he told me, though i had no idea he knew what caramel was. $5 well spent. I know he looks zoned out in this photo, dont worry he was video chatting with Grammy, not watching TV.