Dead People

Yesterday morning I woke up Michael and pulled his giant body into my lap and held him like a huge baby. While I inhaled his morning breath he asked me what school I would prefer for him, Victorian times or Oaklands School. This is what he told me about school in Victorian times to help me decide...

You have to clean under machines that have sharp parts and maybe someone won't know you are under the machine and they will turn it on and you will get cut and maybe get a finger or leg cut off.

You have to rub scroungy cotton together with your bare hands until your hands start bleeding.

You don't wear any shoes or socks and you go into peoples' houses and climb in their chimneys and clean them. You might get paid for that...but not very much, like a dollar a week.

If you do anything wrong you get hit on your hands with a ruler. The front or the back, but usually the back because that hurts more.

Then he seriously asked me which school I thought was better for him...

By the way, there are few things I enjoy more than my children's hot morning breath. It is divine.


Dominic is Harry Potter most days, complete with English accent. Michael is his best friend Ron Weasley, although mostly Michael is Michael and DOESN'T WANT TO PLAY HARRY POTTER! Mike is Hagrid and thankfully, I play myself. Dumbledore sent Harry to live with us because he was unhappy with the Dursleys.

Now...onto the blog!

Sunday we drove into London to visit the British Museum. Dominic is interested in Ancient Egypt and needed to see mummies.

Most major museums have free entry in England. I LOVE IT!

We have taken our boys to the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. They are active beyond what their mother can handle, but they can spend one hour happily in a museum .

Mike follows one and I follow the other. I try to be open to whatever they want to do. I like living so close to London; knowing we can easily return frees me to let them lead the way and to enjoy whatever we manage to see.

At the Victoria and Albert Museum, Dominic and I spent a long time contemplating books in braille describing an ancient Persian rug called the Arbadil Carpet, which is on display and is a stunning 34' 6'' x 17' 6 ''. We looked at the books and felt the designs that pressed up from the pages. I loved the multi sensory experience. I also loved discussing with my little man what it must be like to use fingers to see the world.

Amenhotep III would have loved inter dental brushing.

   In the British Museum, the fascination was real dead people.

We learned about the ancient Egyptian process to mummify a body and saw the salts and tools used. We enjoyed the mummified cats, bulls, falcon, ibis and a teeny tiny fish.

Michael was busy taking most of these photos.

Except this one, taken by Andrew Becraft.

Dominic and I spent some time visiting the 5500 year old dead man seen above, mummified naturally in the dry sand. He sat down next to the case and said he really wanted to live in Egypt. I wasn't sure what the appeal was. He asked what his life would be like.

(Blessings to all Egyptians!)

Michael and Dominic are interested in death, as are most people, I think. Dominic's favorite things are blood, and skeletons, vampires and zombies.

Michael surprised me the other day when he said he wanted to chop off  his head and die because he doesn't have a Wii. He is feeling deprived. Almost everyone he knows has one.

I felt his words in my guts.

I said he couldn't chop his head off right now because he has too much to do. He needs to grow up, play lots of sports, get a job he loves, fall in love, get married and have children. He needs to be a super daddy and then be a grandpa, and then see all of his grandchildren marry and be a great grandpa. After he is done with all of that he may think about chopping off his head.

He seemed satisfied with the plan.

Que sea lo que Dios quiere...

 

Harry Potter having his first sody pop after the British Museum!