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July 27, 2006
Up, up, up
While Linna and I were in Boston, Ethan and Jeff took a trip to Tucson for Jeff's 15-year Up With People reunion. (We went to the 10-year one together, so long ago now... we weren't even married yet!) Jeff will have to describe the whole experience himself. Sounds like it was very busy, but a lot of fun. They had little kid activities that included learning several songs, which Ethan has been singing nonstop. He particularly likes to sing one that goes, "Un amigo baila baila baila baila! Un amigo baila baila baila baila!" Then there's a tear-jerker one about peace that he does quite beautifully. I didn't get to talk to them much while they were there, because they were so busy, but we did exchange a few text messages - in one, Jeff said that Ethan was about to perform so he'd call me later, which made me get a little teary for some reason. I guess because it seems like such a childhood rite, performing for your parents, and I missed the first one. And Jeff said he got choked up several times during the trip for various reasons.
The other song Ethan's been singing since he got home is the signature "Up With People" song, which is a very perky song. It goes, "Up, up with people, you meet 'em wherever you go...." etc., etc. But Ethan likes to stick an extra "up" in there, so he sings, "Up, up, up with people! You meet 'em wherever you go. Up, up, up with people! They're the best kind of folks we know..."
I know I talked about the multiplication thing, but he's also got this fascination with, um, negative numbers right now. It started because he asked one of us something like, "What's 3 minus 4?" and we explained a little bit about negative numbers. What astonishes me is how fast he can do those kinds of things. If you say, "What's 8 minus 10?" or "What's 10 minus 20?" he comes back with the answer immediately. How does he do that? Then we were making cookies yesterday, and the recipe was too big so we were just making a half. Not like he could figure out what half of 1 1/3 was, but he could do half of 4 eggs very easily.
Posted by ktingey at July 27, 2006 09:02 AM