Moonwalk

There’s a rocket ride outside the supermarket.  “Can we ride in the rocket?  Can we? Can we?” it’s a chorus, Fainjin and Babess falling over themselves in excitement.  Pearl glances at me ruefully, she knows she is too big for the ride but I can see she would really like one too.

“OK then,” I agree.  We’re on holiday, in a different town, and it’s a holiday sort of thing to do.  They climb in, pleased to find there’s a steering wheel each, almost tumbling over each other like young puppies.  “Ready?” I ask, as I drop a dollar in the slot.  Theyshriek with laughter as the rocket rocks.

“We’re going to the moon!” they cry.   “Have you got your spacesuit on Babess?”  “Yes I have Fainjin! I can see Venus!” “And I can see Saturn!” they try to outdo each other with astronomical knowledge.

It’s all giggles and smiles for a few minutes, and then the ride slows and stops.  “Out you get,” we say, and they happily climb out.  We continue along the street, but now we’re on the moon, so Fainjin and Babess take giant, jumping steps.

Just as well they were wearing their spacesuits!

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

School trip

Fainjin had his first ever school trip today.  As they are learning about space, they went to the local planetarium.  They saw a film, “Tycho to the Moon”, about a dog who goes to the moon.  “Guess how he gets to the moon, Dad!” challenged Fainjin.  “Um, in a rocket?” hazarded The Dad.  “No, in his space-kennel!” Fainjin was delighted to know more than Dad.

On the way home and throughout dinner we heard all about Tycho and his trip to the moon and how he found a baseball left behind by an astronaut.  We discussed why dogs might need spacesuits on the moon, and which planets you have to pass to get to the sun.

Fainjin described some constellations to his awed little sister, and we promised that on a clear night (sadly, no chance tonight) we would all go outside and look at the stars again, as we sometimes do.

Babess was very disappointed to hear that Pearl and I actually saw a dog spacesuit when we visited the Air and Space Museum in Washington last year.  “You should take me there, because I haven’t seen it,” she said sadly.

As good a reason as any to travel, I suppose!

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

 

Space cadets

Fainjin is getting a double-dose of “space stuff” at the moment.  They’re investigating “where the sun goes at night” at school (“behind the hill” says Fainjin, logically and more-or-less correctly), and learning about space at Boys’ Brigade too.

When he found out about Boys’ Brigade, Fainjin was a little bit concerned.  “Will we go into space, or just learn about space?”  He looked relieved when I scuttled the go-into-space idea.  Perhaps he was worried about getting home in time for tea.

Babess has seized on the idea, though, and asked a couple of times, “Can we go into space?” and tonight, “When are we going into space?!” as if it was a long-promised outing we have been unreasonably delaying.

“We’re not going into space…” I informed her, and Fainjin leapt in, “Babess, we can’t go to space! It’s above the clouds!”

One day they might be astronauts.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.