repotting mandrakes

In February, it was warm enough to plant some spring flowers in the yard. Justin's mom asked Juma to help her with the planting, thinking she could have some nice grandma-grandson bonding time. Juma, however, was reluctant to do anything that looked like work (hey, he is five), so I tried to get him excited.

Juma had recently read and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so I suggested he pretend like the flowers are mandrakes, from the Harry Potter world.





He immediately jumped up, excited, and grabbed a couple winter caps to cover his and Grandma's ears--to protect them from the mandrake's fatal cries. (There weren't any ear muffs.) They planted several flowers in the front yard, always wearing their caps.





Juma even provided the sound effects, screaming shrilling when each plant was out of the flower pot until it was firmly planted in the ground and covered with dirt.

trip

On Saturday night, we got back from two weeks in Utah. The plan had been to stay for only one week, but weather, illness, and family-begging-us-to-stay urged us to stay longer. Unfortunately, I spent half of the extra week curled up in a blanket, alternatively shivering and burning up.

On Tuesday, though, my mom thought up the idea to have a Harry Potter party for the kids (Juma and his Wilson cousins), so she and I spent all of Thursday cooking and preparing while the kids played. We made chocolate frogs, acid pops (dum-dums dipped in honey then rolled in Pop Rocks), cookie wands dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, pumpkin pasties, treacle tarts, creamy onion soup, pumpkin juice, and butter beer. The acid pops were a hit with the kids; we couldn't keep their hands off of them. Within minutes, they were jumping off the walls from the sugar high. (We saved the butter beer for the next day to keep the sugar from making anyone's head explode.) Mom and I were exhausted by the end of it (in fact, before the end of it), but the kids had a great time.

Justin went rock climbing and ice climbing (how could he not, with all those mountains!), and took Juma miniature golfing, to a movie, and to Jumping Jacks play place. Juma also got to hang out with his uncle Cameron and his XBox, as well as play endless hours of Star Wars with his cousins. Juma's collection of light sabers increased to five while we were in Utah; now he has the light sabers of Obi-wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Mace Windu, Darth Maul, and one that color-changes from a Sith blade (red) to a Jedi blade (green). Now just about every cousin who is old enough to lift up the saber can play Jedi-versus-Siths to their hearts' content. Or, until the moms decide things are getting too crazy and put the light sabers away for a while.

(On Friday, Kelly and I decided to put the sabers away after one too many finger-smashings, and I moved the whole lot of them to the car so as to not tempt anyone. Then I promptly forgot I had put them there, and had the whole household turning the house upside down looking for Juma's light sabers. Just as Juma was about to cry with worry for his poor lost toys, I remembered where they were and had to embarrassedly tell everyone I was the one whole misplaced them. Talk about a senior moment. And I'm not even thirty.)

pumpkins and wands

Juma, thoroughly into his new Harry Potter kick, got a "dragon scale" wand through Alivans. He's hardly gone a day without playing with it. Within the first couple days of being a real wizard, he made a book, which looks like a black cat, full of spells like evanseco (heals small wounds), lumos (lights the wand tip like a flashlight), petrificus totalus (puts of full body bind on the target), and expelliarmus (pulls the wand out of the target's hand). Can't tell you how many times I've been stuck in a petrificus totalus, eagerly awaiting the finite incantatum that would end the curse.



Continuing the trend, we looked up some Harry Potter recipes and found a delightful one for Pumpkin Pasties (which Harry bought on the the Hogwarts Express food trolley). We found the recipe here. Try it out, they are yummy. There's an alternative recipe here, along with plenty of other ideas for a full Hogwarts feast.

bibliophiles

Anyone who has been to our house, or has seen us during leisure time knows that Justin and I both love to read. Back in New Haven, we had three very full bookshelves in the living room, another in Juma's room, and three more in our bedroom. And eight or nine more boxes of books in the basement storage unit.

Needless to say, we've encouraged Juma to love books, too. We've been reading him books since before he could comprehend what a book was, and he's had his own library card since before he could write his name on the back. Now, we have "reading practice" every day so he can improve his own reading skills. He's up to Cat in the Hat and Arthur books.

We've recently discovered he has the attention span for us to read him big kid books, the kind with no pictures and hundreds of pages and dozens of chapters. After Justin read The Golden Compass on my recommendation, he started reading it aloud to Juma. Juma was quite interested, but the subtleties of the plot were beyond him. That was okay, because he still liked the armored bears and the daemons shape-changing and other fun fantasy elements of the book.

Two days ago, we decided to try reading Harry Potter to him instead. Start a bit simpler. We'd been planning on reading the books to him for years, just waiting for him to be old enough. I read him the fist chapter, and he was jumping on the couch in excitement, asking questions about everything. He couldn't wait until I finished sentences and paragraphs to find out "Who is that? Why did he say, 'What the...?' What do the ghosts look like?"

When I finished the first chapter, he immediately demanded the second. He wants more and more, and it's delightful to watch his eyes light up. We're now on chapter 9, and pushing through quickly.

Woohoo! My son loves Harry Potter!

deathly hallows

I arrived at 12:01am Saturday, to hear the jubilant cheers of other Harry Potter zealots celebrating the first sales of the seventh book. Andria, humoring me, waited in line with me, around the corner of the building. Thirty-five minutes later, I had my thick, orange copy in my arm. After driving home and enduring some gentle teasing from Justin about my devotion to the boy hero, I started to read.

I read, without getting tired until 5:30am, slept a bit, then read every second I got (and I got a lot of them) until 11pm Saturday.

I won't say anything more to spare you from spoilers. But as soon as you finish, let me know, so we can talk about it!

hp

My name is Sarah, and I'm a Harry Potter addict. I bought tickets to see the 12:30am show, and Justin's long-suffering enough to come along with me.

Now I feel a little lame, but that's okay. I'll go to bed happy.

Deathly Hallows cover art

Check it out--the book cover for the American edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)


Yeah, yeah, I know it doesn't come out until July...

another hit in my harry potter addiction

JK Rowling has given a Christmas gift a little early this year. She has revealed the title of Harry Potter 7 on her website. Check it out if you want to confirm for yourself that this isn't a rumor, like Harry Potter and the Pillar of Scourge was. But you have to work for it a little. For clues, go here.

The title of Book 7 is

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Intriguing.

She hasn't finished writing it yet, though, and there is no release date as of yet.

Okay, my Happy Potter addiction is fed for a while. Please return to your regularly scheduled Internet surfing.

HPAA

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I'm a Harry Potter Addict. (Everyone: Hi, Sarah.)

How else would I know that the trailer for movie 5 is out? Check it out at the Happy Feet movie page (or by going to see Happy Feet in the theater).

But don't get your hopes up. The movie doesn't come out until July.

And in case you are wondering, release date and title have not been announced for Book 7. But stores are beginning to advertise it all the same...

18 hours later...

Well, I have emerged from my HarryPotteritis 18 hours after onset of symptoms, but not without giving a case of it to Justin. He has now shut himself in the bedroom, only to emerge when he has finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, too. Knowing how fast he reads, he should emerge sometime this evening.

I predicted right about who would die in the book and who Harry would "hook up" with, but I was wrong about who the half-blood prince might be. I've also got a solid theory about who R.A.B is...but you'll have to get to that part in the book yourself.

Happy reading, for those of you who also like to enter the Potterverse.