Hair-Raising and Gem Mining

So Charlie woke up from his nap the other day, and he looked like this:



Now, every time I mention the word 'haircut' I get a chorus of boisterous rejections to the very thought of bringing scissors to those curls. So we will leave him be for now and just accept that he looks like Cool from the movie "Parenthood". Check out the pictures.





Later that afternoon, Charlie went gem mining. His Aunt Barbara gave me this idea - she lives in North Carolina and has a pass to The Biltmore, the former estate of the Vanderbilts that is now open to the public and has a lot of kid-friendly events and activities. She brought Charlie's cousin Celia there last weekend and one of the activities was Gem Mining. Lots of rocks were put in water, and the kids were given slotted spoons to go mining for gems.

Charlie's cousin Celia:
















So I got a bunch of tumbled rocks from Jason's collection, put them in his water table, and gave him a slotted spoon. He picked up the spoon and threw it across the patio. He then took a rock out of the water, walked over to the folding chair we have out there, and placed it on the seat, while saying "duuuhhhnnnn" (translation: one). He then went back to the water table, carefully selected another rock, walked it over the the chair, and placed it next to the first one, saying "duuuuuuueee" (translation: two). He continued this process until all 14 rocks were removed from the water table and placed on the chair.




He then picked up a large rock - one that is too large to tumble, and chucked it into the water, creating a hilarious splash. He repeated this activity with three other large rocks.

So the whole mining concept was lost on him. But he still managed to have a bit of industrious fun all the same. Check out more pictures here.