I Can't Do Whatever I Want

Before Jonge and Famke arrive at my house, I try to plan out a few different things to do. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't.

One of my plans for a Christmas gift for the two of them was to have THGGM get the TV works out of the lovely cabinet that was his grandmother's very first ever TV. We have dragged that thing from house to house. My dad has a similar old TV cabinet, so when THGGM looked at it and said it could not be done, I turned to my dad. Certainly, HE would know. If for no other reason than that he is my dad and there never seemed to be anything that he could not fix. Why, I recall that he even knew how to tear up a cement basement floor when my mom put corn husks down the garbage disposal and clogged up the whole works. On a HOLIDAY.

But, even he was no help. He had someone take the TV out for him.

I might try kicking the stupid thing down the basement steps and just SEE what happens. I'm starting not to like it at all.

So, since the idea was to make something for young children to have fun with, by using things that I already have on hand, especially things that had meaning due to the fact that they once belonged to Jonge and Famke's great-great-grandmother, today I decided to go with the old stand-by of sticking a tension rod in a doorway and pinning a cloth to it.

To do this all I had to do was remove a curtain from one of the kitchen windows. I removed the curtain that allows us to watch the birds eat seed in the driveway. I replaced the lacy curtain with a piece of embroidery done by THGGM's grandmother. So, if I use my imagination and turn my head just so I can PRETEND it's a puppet theater in an old TV cabinet.

I've been looking for puppets, and Saturday found a dog puppet at the thrift store. A few weeks back I found a bunch of finger puppets there also. We were good to go.

Now, if you watch the 17 seconds of video, you will notice that Famke enjoyed just walking from one side of the curtain to the other. I explained to Jonge that he should just let her do that, as she is just very little and doesn't understand things as well as big boys do. This was fine with him. After each act she was allowed to end the 'play' by kissing the puppet.

And, if you listen REALLY closely, you will hear that in this 17 seconds of video that Jonge says THREE times, although through his little monkey friend, "I can do whatever I want." I won't let him say that to me. Apparently, he's decided to let his little monkey friend try out that phrase and see how it works for him.

It was a fun day. Even though I did not get a nap.