The other night, Max and I watched videos about Jupiter’s moon, Europa. He knows from other times we’ve talked that scientists think there may be life there. But he never knew the ocean there larger than any ocean on Earth. That got him excited,  because of his love for oceans, and he even told Karolina about it the next day.

We learned about the satellite NASA will send there in a few years. And we remembered the scary Europa Report which we watched maybe 6 months ago, and he liked very much.

Thisled to the inevitable questions about Voyager I and II, which continue to fascinate him (and me!) … since it’s the farthest we’ve sent any satellite, ever, and the first and only to leave our solar system.

The point of this story? Max calls the moon Aropa instead of Europa, and I think it is adorable.

We watched “Lies My Father Told Me” tonight, after a brief portion of “In the Womb” (while Karolina is about 28 weeks pregnant). Both of the movies were given to me by my father and remind me of him, especially “Lies…”. Such a sad and beautiful movie. Max asked why it had to end that way, and why did they kill the horse? And why did we show him that movie? But he did like it. He liked it so much he lost a tooth!

I was telling Max about parents in Perris, California who locked up their 13 children and only now were just found. He asked if it happens a lot and I said no, but then told him about the daughter that was locked up by Fritzl in Austria. His response?

“What if she runs out of toothpaste?”

One of the nicest holiday breaks I can remember. We stayed in Cordillera and didn’t travel. Max and I saw the new Star War on December 22. Christmas Eve with Karolina’s amazing dinner and gingerbread cookies. Her simple tree without all the crazy lights. Presents and coffee Christmas morning. Max still believes in Santa Claus. Is this the last time? He said there’s no way he can fit down our chimney. We told him that we leave the front door unlocked.

For Hannukah, Max got a new Mad Ballz (series 2) every night. I got a Bob Ross talking bobble head, and a couple of t-shirts (“Cat, I am Your Father” and the Shining Twins), two awesome Ray Harryhausen books, and pants from The Netherlands. I gave Karolina some cat shoes (Charlotte Olympia), yarn for Newey, and some pattern books.

Max had a lego-building marathon for 2 or 3 days (shark submarine, fisherman’s shack). I helped build the shark submarine in entirety, something I’ve never done before. It took longer than I expected.

Karolina moved her office upstairs, into the TV room, so she could build a nursery for Newey. Max went away for 2 or 3 days to see GaGa. While he was gone, Karolina and I stopped at the shelter and met Randall, a cat who looked a lot like Pepi (see photo in above collage) but wasn’t as skittish as Pepi.

Maybe the best part, for me, was sledding on the iced river in front of the house. We had to remove the snow first, then build a snow block under the bridge so Max didn’t get hurt.

New Year’s Eve was uneventful and we went to bed early.

On the last day, Jan 1, 2018, Max and I climbed the ridge above Red Draw Ranch. In the distance I am sure we could get to Diana Donovan’s farm. We didn’t go because of the snow and fading light. On the way, we collected snail shells while Chinley ran wild.

This was relevant to what we were listening to at the moment. It was not something I asked out of the blue.

Aki: “Max, do you know what sex is?”

Max: “Yes, it’s the kissing”

We were listening to an interview with the owner of Stardust Ranch, where supposedly aliens, UFOS, and monsters are commonplace. There are portals on the property, too. The interviewer asked the owner if he’d ever been abducted by an alien. Max asked me to pause it so we could talk about “alien maduction“.

This isn’t the interview we listened to, but it’s a good summary of the property:

Last weekend, Max and I went to Oklahoma City for the Ray Harryhausen exhibit at the Oklahoma City Science Museum. This is the first time I’ve traveled with him alone for an extended period; at least it’s the first I remember. And it brought back memories of doing the same with my father. All those trips he and I shared, just the two of us on adventures.

This trip wasn’t so much an adventure as a pilgrimage. The weekend before — Thanksgiving — we had a Harryhausen marathon. Max and I watched many of his films before that, however. Giant crabs, bees, skeletons, monsters.

Max got very upset when, after the museum curator gave a speech and took questions, the prize of the movie poster was awarded to a young girl for the best question (Max’s question was, “How did he make the blood?”).

We went to a skeleton museum, where Max got a computer mouse embedded with a fiddler crab. We saw a building near there that looked like a tornado had flattened it. Max was very excited about that.

The science museum, which we went back to on Sunday, was one of the coolest science museums I’ve been to, even if it’s planetarium was very, very lame.

Max at the diner for Sunday breakfast!

Karolina:

He asks me, “Are you going to have more children than Newey?” And I said to him, “No, we were not even planning on Newey, but you know, here’s Newey.”

And then he looks me and says, “Well, then you have to stop doing this” (finger on one hand in and out of fingers on other hand”

We spent Thanksgiving at Diana Donovan’s townhouse in Vail. She had a friend and her daughter visiting from New Mexico. Max was surprisingly well-behaved and played with his magnetic building toys most of the time. I cut the turkey (never did that before) and we had a good time. Diana’s husband watched some football, ate a bit, then left early to “lock up the chickens” at the cabin near Cordillera. He commented that I had a good appetite, that I was eating a lot, which is the wrong thing to say to a dinner guest. I stopped eating, even though I would have had more 🙂

Max this morning to Karolina: “Are catfish related to cats?”

Two days ago, Karolina found out that Newey is a boy. Max is very happy he’ll have someone to play legos with.

Reading

Last night, we read the first six chapters of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” When I said it’s time for bed and closed the Kindle, Max said, “I never knew books without pictures could be so good.”

Sayings

• hostabul for hospital (while talking about the 500 people injured at the Las Vegas concert shooting)
• navilla instead of vanilla ice cream

Max this a.m. :” I can’t believe that there are people who deny climate change! How can they deny climate change, don’t they see what is happening? When the North Pole melts where is Santa Claus going to live? Don’t people worry about that?”

Text message from Karolina:

“Max started to take his hairbrush with him in the car and before he gets out of the car in front of the school, he brushes his hair and looks in the mirror.”

“He also told me this morning to take better care of his room, as he found a tea bag in his sink! He said this to me after he bed!?! Honestly I have no idea what suddenly got into him.”

… and last night, I was sleeping with him in the Littleton house after reading a book on trolls.

After a moment I said, “Don’t you want the turtle light on?”

Max replied, “I forgot it.”

I turned it on. It’s the first time he’s forgotten that he needs a night light! Between all of these things in just a day or two, we are really seeing him grow up, to change.

He’s started to make friends with the two neighbor kids; they’ve been over playing in the scary basement and of course they play outside, too. He’s never had neighborhood friends before, even in Lexington where there were a few neighborhood kids.

Last night, Karolina told me she is pregnant. She arrived about 11:00 PM to Littleton, after talking with the police and Cordillera public safety about the people who trampled our property.