February 7, 2005 - Monday
Harry and Jeremy each got one of these special cups yesterday from some friends of ours visiting from Washington. I suppose they're odd little souvenirs from somewhere like the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, but for 5- and 3-year-old boys they are truly awesome ("awesome" having replaced "cool" as the pinnacle of desirability in Harry's Pre-K vernacular). The novelty with these cups is that the lower third is a compartment filled with green and clear liquids that don't mix (probably water and oil of some kind). Also inside there are three little cars - red, blue, and yellow - that appear to be bottom-weighted so they sink in the clear [water], but not the green [oil] and don't tip over very easily. The effect is that the cars appear to be driving on the green. And, it kind of looks like you'd always be about to drink the whole thing, but it's always below whatever drink is in the rest of the cup.

Both Harry and Jeremy brought their cups to school today to show their friends. (Every day they feel the need to bring in a toy, usually a Bionicle, to show their friends, be cool, or something. I guess I understand it, but it's usually a very annoying part of the morning.) When we get to school, assuming Jeremy's teachers have already headed upstairs, Harry will run off to do his name tag and I'll walk Jeremy up, say goodbye, then come down and say goodbye to Harry. This morning as I came back through Harry's room he was off by himself on the side of the room just kind of staring off into space, but with this introspective, but radiantly glowing smile on his face. He didn't even seem to notice me when I came over to him.
"Harry, are you all right?"
"Yeah," he said, but nothing else.
"Harry, what is it?" I asked, kind of sensing that the cup had been well received.
"Nothing." Not a surprising answer.
"Harry, did your friends like your cup?"
"Yeah."
"What did they say about it?"
Finally emerging from his little reverie, he answered happily, "they said it was awesome!"


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