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Comments for But Not the Hippopotamus
But Not the Hippopotamus: 01/20/07
But Not the Hippopotamus is one of three Sandra Boynton books Sean received as a Hanukah present back in 2005. Now that Sean is beginning to read, these books have come back into his rotation of "current reads."
But Not the Hippopotamus rings true to anyone who has felt excluded. On each page a pair of friends are doing something fun while the hippopotamus looks on. The story is told in verse with the title of the book ending each stanza. For this hippopotamus, he does eventually join the group of friends but not the armadillo.
The illustrations are cute and poignant. Boynton captures the growing sadness of the hippopotamus perfectly. Each page his frown gets a little longer and his eyes a little sadder. When at last the punchline comes the eyes pop open first to surprise and then to glee.
No Picnic Today:
We didn't stick with our original plan of having a picnic at Lake Chabot. Sean and Ian both were very tired and in need of a "rest-a-day." Sean explained to me over lunch that he'd had three nightmares the night before. I know one of the nightmares involved Superman and Harle Quinn (while Batman and the Joker were "off doing something else"). He didn't tell me what the other two nightmares were.
Ian meanwhile had been awake until two because of his cough. He has the same cold I had last April. It has a lingering cough that for me lasted a month. I remember thinking I had some horrible combination of asthma, emphysema and whooping cough and then suddenly the coughing stopped.
So rather than have a picnic we mostly stayed home and took turns playing video games. We did head out for lunch and some grocery shopping in the afternoon but otherwise we took it easy. During this time, Sean stayed curled up on the couch.
Later while I was getting Harriet ready for bed, Sean started to misbehave, something he only does while overly tired. Tired of hearing Ian and Sean getting on each others' nerves, I shouted for Sean to go to his room. Sean did. In fact he tucked himself into bed and was asleep before Harriet!
Steps: 7000