just how nerdy are we? let me tell you.

Did everybody hear that M was very nearly on my favorite radio program, NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow?  He was on the hour before in a spot on the local version of Science Friday.  I thought the host asked some pretty lame questions (I'm bookmarking the first segment of her show for future use as a cure for insomnia.) and it was clear that she didn't come from a scientific background or do any homework on the topic like Ira does, but M did great anyway.  He was talking about his NASA funded grant to develop building materials that would be suitable for lunar habitats!!!!  If you are interested in listening to the spot let me know in the comments and I'll e-mail you the link.

We always have a chapter book that we are reading with the older two kids at bedtime.  (AJ sleeps in a different room and has a bit earlier bedtime, but he has started to realize that he is missing out on this fun.)  M chose our current book; The Empire Strikes Back.  Yep, pretty much line for line from the movie.  As Master Yoda, would no doubt say, "Great literature it is not."  But the kids love the story.  Well, actually they love the characters, and couldn’t care less about Mr. Lucas' plots or dialog.  S has always listed astronaut in her top 5 career choices, and the concept of a space princess rocks her world!  Quite literally, 5 whole minutes of the children’s waking hours do not pass that one of them doesn't say something like, “Hey Mom!  Wouldn’t it be funny if wookies came in all different colors, like blue or orange with purple polka dots and Luke was missing so they had to make an inflatable Luke doll to trick the Storm Troopers. . .  ”  Or “Hey Mom!  Wouldn’t it be funny if Princess Leia sneaked in and changed the soundtrack and instead of the dun dun dun dunda dun dunda dun that always plays whenever Darth Vader is around, it plays ‘Jingle bells, Emperor smells Vader laid an egg.  Death Star lost a laser and Yoda got away! HEY!”. . .  Or "Hey, Mom!  Wouldn't it be funny if Chewbaca got into the ventilation system and made it so that when Darth Vader is chasing Luke down a long hall, as Luke gets to the far end, spaghetti squirts out of all the air vents in the ceiling and covers Darth Vader in spaghetti!". . . You know I have a pretty well developed imagination, but I couldn't come up with that kind of stuff!

   

The older two have actually seen segments of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but we felt like it would be a little too much for a three year old just yet.  Even without seeing the movies, our crazy little AJ runs around all day making blaster noises, insisting that he is Luke and refusing to wear any shirt other than his tie dyed t-shirt which he claims "looks like a Death Star exploding."  The other day, he pulled up said Death Star explosion tie dyed shirt to show me his “three bellybuttons” and told me that the top two (aka his nipples) are “for shooting out lasers.”  (hmm, I had no idea!  That could come in handy.)  He and I were looking at some illustrated Bible stories, specifically at a picture of a shepherd with sheep.  I asked him who takes care of the sheep and he quickly responded, “The Jedi!”  The Force is strong with this one it is.

This is a drawing S did just before the Star Wars obsession began.  I love the detailed dashboard of the ship, the circles showing the communication waves, the jet-packs, and the spiraling access ladder at the very bottom of the ship!