National Ornamental Metal Museum

Today, we decided to take a trip to the National Ornamental Metal Museum, right here in Memphis. M and I had never been, B had visited once with an out-of-town friend. This is one of the hidden treasures of Memphis! I hesitate to tell you this, lest we begin a trend and the grounds become overrun.

The museum consists of 3 buildings - 2 with displays and a smithy shop where you can watch them forge new items, although today there was not much forging going on to M's disappointment. You really cannot blame them though, it is too hot here right now to deliberately start a fire and make it hotter!! The first building had a cool display of locks, caskets (aka treasure chests to M), decorative pieces, utensils, gates, etc. M loved it and so did we. We hit the gift shop in the first building and M got a $1 metal charm to carry in his pocket. They had fabulous gifts there - I could spend some serious money. As a matter of fact, my necklace that the boys gave me for Mother's Day is from here and is lovely.

We then went into the second building, which had a special exhibit mostly made up of spitball launchers and a "personal lite brite assistant" and other quirky stuff. M loved the spitball shooters - the mini pocket one, the long range "sniper" model, etc. I thought that the PLBA was pretty fun too.

The sculpture garden is lovely and we discovered that there is a sculpture in the garden by the same guy who did the one that my uncle gave us as a wedding gift. So, we had to take photos of that, of course. The garden is full of neat pieces to look at and there is a lovely little gazebo overlooking the Mississippi River. We had a great time sitting there and watching the paddlewheel tour boat come down, turn around and work its way back upstream. We then saw a barge coming upriver and it docked below the bluff on which the grounds are located. It looked like a pit stop for the barge as they offloaded their garbage (good to know that they don't just chuck it into the river!), and other stuff. M was fascinated. The grounds are lovely - well landscaped, nicely shaded, and, as B pointed out, probably about 20 degrees cooler than it was in our backyard today. The combination of cool river breezes and large shady trees makes for a pleasant place to spend a hot summer afternoon.

Pennsylvania Trip

We had a nice time in PA, visiting family, but were happy to arrive home today. M had a blast at Hersheypark with Granddad, H, E, R and Aunt T. He also rode his first "real" rollercoaster - 3 times! On the 2nd and 3rd go-round, he did it with his hands in the air. Sadly, I have no photos of this as his mom was actually holding on to the seat restraint (and also one arm around him). We did lots of fun rides. M enjoyed the flume, the roller coaster, and the Ferris Wheel. I humored him by riding on the tilt-a-whirl, which my dad calls the "tilt-a-hurl" and that is a good name for it - bleech! Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking when I said yes to that one! We rode on the ferris wheel at the end of the day, at M's request. I'm afraid of heights but went along - mostly to keep an eye on M. My little brother, E., kept routing for the wheel to get stuck at the top and then he said "Don't worry G, this is made out of steel. I mean it is put together with rusty bolts, but..." That E is a funny guy!

Manners

You try so hard to instill manners in your child (well, at least WE do, I have seen other children out in the general public whose parents obviously have spent less than a nanosecond teaching their kids manners, but I digress.)

This week, M is at vacation bible school, getting his annual allotment of bible songs and Jesus stories. He loves VBS, as they call it. Or as he would say, he's a big fan of VBS. But yet as a parent you fret when you turn your kid out into the wide world without you there to watch their every move. Will he remember not to pick his nose? Will he rat out the fact that sometimes you serve Happy Meals as dinner? Will he remember his manners?

I am pleased to say that a friend of mine reported last night that when he was leaving VBS music class yesterday, he stopped and told the teacher, "Thank you for doing music with us today. I really enjoyed it." That is the verbatim quote. It made me so happy to hear this and even more happy to know that all those efforts in instill some manners have paid off. I mean, honestly, sometimes his manners at home are atrocious. Awful. Raised in a barn type manners. He has been known to actually poke my hand with his fork in order to get my attention (and he has lived to tell about it!) He routinely demands instead of asks for things (and then is forced to repeat this request over and over again until he has it right). So to know that underneath all that is a boy with perfectly lovely manners makes me feel so good.

This morning I gave M a big kiss from his Grammy with whom I spoke last night. He thought that was hilarious and wanted to give me one back. So he did, but then afterward said, "You know Mom, that wasn't a big kiss. That was a smooch! I bet you never had a smooch." I didn't tell him that almost every night after he is sound asleep, I climb up on his bed and give him a big smooch. It would violate the 5 kisses treaty we have, but I just can't help myself. What can I say? He is smooch-able for sure!

Reading

We have another mystery fan in our house - M is very taken with detective stories. Currently, Jigsaw Jones and Encyclopedia Brown are the top choices. The other night, M and I were reading Encyclopedia Brown at bedtime. He likes that Encyclopedia's real name is Leroy (you know Mom, like Pop's name with a Le in front). Lately, he has taken to "correcting" me if I don't get the inflection or voices right. For example, if I don't use enough indignation in a sentence or put the emphasis on the wrong word, he'll restate it. After fixing my 'mistakes' several times the other night, he offered to read for a while (guess he thought that way the book would be read correctly). Here are just a few of the words that he read with absolutely no help from me (and pronounced them all correctly too):

- businesslike
- cleverly
- Battle of Manassas
- Stonewall Jackson
and he also got "reacted" hyphenated over two lines. It really blew me away. I mean, I know he can read well, but the Battle of Manassas for goodness sake!! B and I are going to be in serious trouble in a few years - very serious!!

Summer Break

We are having a VERY busy summer so far. Last week was full of local adventures - breakfast at IHOP with me, lunch at Red Robin another day with B (after allergy shots) and a trip to the new Target which is the best Target EVER!! M. asked if we could start going there every day :-) I said that I didn't think that was wise, if he wants a college fund that has actually been funded!

On Sunday, our big excitement was that we moved the queen size futon up to M's room so that he can have a bigger bed. He just could not stay on his twin sized bed. The other night I went up to check on him and he was sound asleep with his feet on the floor, his rear end up in the air and his arms, chest and head on the bed. On Sunday night, while reading our bedtime books and snuggling, he said "Mom thank you SO much for this bed." To which I replied that he was most welcome and that he should thank B since he did so much of the heavy work. M looked at me and said "Mom, you know you did most of the work." Ha, ha. Getting credit even where it isn't due.

M has started swim lessons and B took him to the first one. The next day I took him and was quizzing him about how his teacher looked so we could spot him. M said, "Well he looks just like me, except he is bigger and he has fur on him like Daddy. So, I guess he looks like Daddy." (B would be thrilled if I said he looked just like the swim coach!) M's swimming continues to improve, but he has a small problem when practicing. I have noticed that if there are any little girls swimming nearby, he has a tendancy to lose focus and instead of looking at me or the wall or wherever he is swimming to, he looks at the girls and starts going off course. Parents, lock up your daughters!