huck blog

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two tales: both exciting

November 29, 2006, 9:48 am

Yesterday Huck told me a 15 minute story about the sun saying boop and the rocks in the ground and the people tomorrow and the diamonds in the sky saying boop and then the heavy rocks and the flowers and the leaves going bye-bye and the wind blowing the houses and more about the rocks saying boop and the sun and the dark. Then he noticed our Christmas lights hanging and stared at them for a while before continuing his tale, followed by some beautiful coloring.

And now here’s a tale about our little movie CHALK! Morgan Spurlock, the wonderful filmmaker who did the anti-McDonald’s documentary SUPER SIZE ME, is going to be our distributor. It will be a “Morgan Spurlock Presents” production, and the plan is to premiere in NYC, LA and Chicago at the end of March, with a slow roll out to other cities across the country. The news was made public this morning in the big- time trade paper Variety. And yesterday morning it was announced that CHALK is up for an Independent Spirit Award, which is the Oscars for indie films. There are lots of details to be figured out, but you might see our very large faces showing up in movie theater previews sometime in February.

So long, Ronald McDonald. We'll miss you.

Meanwhile Huck sits in his art studio and struggles to decide what to draw next: ladybugs, worms or bumble bees?

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thank heaven for little boys

November 26, 2006, 8:20 pm

We spent Thanksgiving about 90 miles north of here in Kingston, New York with our good friends Mark, Sharron and Gus. Gus and Huck are six weeks apart, so we got to spend several days with TWO delightful drunken cavemen! Here are things we did: built duck hotels with colorful blocks, fed actual ducks and pigeons (which was really fun until one of the pigeons landed on my head and caused me to scream so loudly that I'm sure I've given Huck a lifelong fear of birds), touched a cicada skin, read the Thanksgiving turkey book from Uncle Nathan half a million times, sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm" almost as many times, ate tremendous food made by our amazing hosts, took a walk (and a nap) around Woodstock, witnessed Daddy cut his bottom on the bathtub faucet (which resulted in very concerned and numerous offers to "kiss it"), colored on giant pieces of paper, and went shopping at Target! And as if that wasn't enough, we got to ride there and back in a car with Abbie! 'Twas a very happy and fulfilling thanksgiving.

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angelic

November 20, 2006, 12:17 pm

Huck became very attached to the Vacation Bible School soundtrack last summer, as did most of the children who learned the songs from very enthusiastic Troy and sang them with him everyday for a week. What makes Huck unique here is that he continues to sing them everyday. Now I’m pleased as can be that Huck enjoys praising the Lord in song. However, I’m a bit embarrassed by his overtly religious ways when we are in public. The other day Huck and I were having a date at our favorite neighborhood pizzaria when he began to loudly sing, along with sign, “YES, LORD, YES, LORD, YES, LORD, YES, LORD, AMEN!” followed by his arms reaching towards the heavens as he screamed, “HALLELUJAH!” with perfect pronunciation. I wanted to tell all the staring people, “He really likes pizza.”

We always say a short prayer before dinner, and lately this prayer has become longer and longer because Huck makes requests about who and what we pray for. Abbie is almost always mentioned, followed by some other family and friends, and then we pray for things like trees, water, birds, and the other day baby wipes. He’s a very thankful little kid.

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more!

November 16, 2006, 2:08 pm

This morning Huck and I joined a rowdy gang of moms, dads and kids from the neighborhood to see a free dress rehearsal of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show! Turns out several Rockettes are moms like me (but with better legs) right here in our neighborhood. We had front row seats and actually made eyes with the orchestra members. At one point I could have literally touched a Rockette Leg if I’d had the guts to. Huck stared intensely at the big numbers, and every single time the curtain went down so that Santa could do his schtick, Huck sobbed and loudly screamed, “MORE! MORE!” while doing his little sign language. Sorry, Santa, but you’re no match for the Rockettes.

All I could think about while watching Huck taking all this in as he sat on the arm of the chair was how unbelievably exciting this would have been to me as a kid. I grew up in Salina, Kansas and my parents took me to more theatre than you would imagine happening in a midwestern town like that. I grew up around art and plays and musicals and never took it for granted. Listening to musical soundtracks like "The King and I" or "West Side Story" is very emotional for me, bringing back some of my favorite childhood memories. Living in a city like New York, able to jump on the train with my son and spend a few hours at Radio City Music Hall is pretty much all I want out of life. I’m hoping to make this a tradition for Huck. And me. Not so much for Troy, who was very happy I didn't make him go with us.

Here we are with some of our playground friends, out on the town with glow-in-the-dark strollers and zombie boys, who all perked up once the show began.

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seasons greetings!

November 12, 2006, 4:17 pm

We promised ourselves last December that this year we would be very organized and ahead of schedule so that we could enjoy the holiday season with our drunken caveman and not feel so crazy. So in keeping this promise, the last few weeks we have been trying and trying to get a family picture taken to put in our Christmas cards. What do you think of our progress so far? Be honest.

[ 10 comments ] ( 79 views )

608 days old

November 7, 2006, 7:58 am

Happy 20 months birthday, Huck!

I am really looking forward to the day when I can just say, “He’s two. He’s two and a half. He’s almost three.” I’ve about had it with this counting by the months thing.

Our 20 month old is currently learning that some people are women and some are men and some are boys and some are girls. Please don’t feel badly if you are a man and he calls you a woman. Sometimes he points to himself and says, “Huck, Woman!” and he always knows what Mommy is. It’s a VERY high compliment.

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