The Place With The Moons

Bastian said he wanted to go to the place with the moons. He tried to explain what all was there - toys? food? I can't recall, but it was garbled and I couldn't figure out what he meant. He had been at the Natural History Museum with friends a few days earlier, so I assumed they'd gone to the room with, well, all the moons in it, and that this was what he meant. So, I gave a trip to the museum a shot.

Boy howdy, was I wrong! He did not mean the Natural History Museum. Aleks finally figured it out though. Bastian meant Borders. Of course. Why I didn't think of that is beyond me. /sarcasm

He meant these moons. Those would be the moons and planets and stars and comets and cosmic dust that decorate the floor of the children's section at Borders. We figured it out because he talked about puppets. Their puppet rack is quite impressive lately and the boys have enjoyed playing extensively with the puppets when we've visited.

So we went to Borders later in the evening after dinner (which also took quite a bit of convincing on my part to wait that long). I asked Bastian while we were there why he never plays with the puppets at our house. He said he doesn't like our puppets. He only likes the puppets at Borders. Admittedly, their puppets are pretty awesome, but we have a lot of puppets that never really get used. I keep holding on to them, realizing that the boys have quite a few years of childhood left. Well, at least a few years, anyway.

We went to the cafe after a bit of puppet play to get our usual hot chocolate. I drank tea and started reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I liked that first chapter quite well and want to get the books to read to the boys. I'll probably get them from the library and end up reading them alone. Ah well.

While in the cafe, Bastian watched two men playing speed chess. He was thoroughly impressed and talked about wanting to learn how to play. I don't even really know how to play chess. Aleks talked about strategy and wondered how they thought up their strategies if they were playing so fast. I recalled friends who play a lot of chess and how they learned different strategies from books, how they were patterns they learned to remember and run through automatically. I told this to Aleks, but I don't think he quite understood. I barely know how to articulate the matter myself.
Bastian continued to watch carefully between sips on his hot chocolate. When the players accidentally knocked pieces onto the floor, he picked them up and set them back on the table for them. They were very friendly with us and we watched until the store closed.
At home, he got out our HABA chess set, but we haven't found time to sit down and play just yet due to deadlines and illness. Mostly, he's played with the pieces in whichever way he sees fit, which is the same way he plays with all his toys and guys: they battle and talk and cooperate and negotiate and make sound effects whilst he throws his body around on the couch.