Zoboomafu is the new Sagwa.

After watching every episode of Sagwa (twice), Jocelyn has switched her TV viewing preferences. She now watches Zoboomafu, a PBS program featuring a lemur named Zoboomafu, who hosts his own show using live-action, puppetry and animation. Jocelyn’s been learning a lot about the animal kingdom, too.

Jocelyn and I were in the other room playing a game. She assigned the role of older sister to the frog and the rabbit, the role of younger sister to the geofrog and mama bear, and the role of the middle sister to herself. Being a middle sister, I was curious so I asked her why she wanted to be the middle sister and not the older sister. She said she wanted to be the middle sister because the older sister spends all her time building and making things and the younger sister always wrecks them. Afterall these years I have discovered that the middle sister is the perfect place to be.

Thomas The Tank Engine has been part of our household since Jocelyn was very little. Jocelyn has spent lots of hours running Thomas, James, Lady, Percy, Clarabelle, and others around and around the track. Grandpa has always been the Master Track Builder as he used to be the only one who could get all the pieces to fit on the table. Jocelyn has been an apprentice to Grandpa. Today she graduated to Assistant Master Track Builder and built a beautiful track all by herself. Meanwhile, Felicia was the main supplier of train engines as she took them out of the box and put them back in the box. Suddenly, she spotted the completed track. She turned, looked at Grandee with that gleam in her eye and that “I’m going to do something cute” smile on her face and headed for the track. It only took nanoseconds for Felicia The Breakdown Engineer to undo Jocelyn’s masterful work. Normally the Breakdown Engineer repairs trains that have broken down, but Felicia hasn’t learned that yet. She thought it was more fun to cause the breakdown. Grandee distracted Felicia while Grandpa helped Jocelyn rebuild her track, but the distraction was brief. The Breakdown Engineer was on a mission and that mission was to dissassemble the track. So Grandpa and Felicia continued building and then breaking down the track while Jocelyn & Grandee went on to other fun activities.

I’ve mentioned earlier that Jocelyn has developed some modesty when it comes to running around the house naked. She still runs; I just can’t look. Anyway, earlier this evening I thought I saw a naked six-year-old out of the corner of my eye ….. she yelled, “It’s OK, Daddy, I’m hiding.”

Then added, “It’s OK if you see my face because my face is always naked.”

Jocelyn and I had a wonderful time on Sunday night attending an amazing performance of acrobats from Taiwan. The ancient art of Chinese acrobatics included drummers, contortionists, jugglers (with both hands and feet), at least ten people balancing on 1 bicycle, and many other wonders. When we talked about it afterward, Jocelyn and I had a tough time choosing our favorite part of the show. But now, two days later, Jocelyn says that her favorite part was the end of the show when each performer came back out and did a short piece of their specialty. My favorite was probably the woman who rode a 12 ft. unicyle and flipped a stack of bowls from her foot to her head while maintaining her balance high in the air. Jocelyn was very clear, though, about her least favorite part of the show. The man balancing on a stack of ten chairs mounted on four glass bottles made her very nervous! So, we just hung out at the back of the theater until that part was over. But we were very impressed when he ended up on a stack of chairs so high that when he balanced in a handstand, his feet touched the ceiling of the theater! It was a very fun evening for Jocelyn and her aunt. I can’t wait to take Kiana and my other nieces someday too!

We celebrated Felicia’s birthday a few days early, hosting a lunch soiree for family and a few friends. Felicia was feted with some nice presents, including toys and clothing. She’s enjoying all of the gifts (and, Jocelyn has really enjoyed playing with most of them, too). We shouldn’t need any new toys for quite a while!