Ten Apples Up On Top - or more like two, in this case

Today Jules stayed home from school. He is sick, sort of. He has a weird malady that shows up in the form of "bug bites" all over his body, and especially on his hands. So he's been doing a lot of itching, scratching and crying. Poor Jules.

So...because I'm the fille au pair, I create instant fun...

Jules and I love the book "Ten Apples Up On Top," which is a simplified Dr. Seuss-y sort of book, though written by somebody else who's name I can't recall and can't be bothered to look up, although "Theo" rings a bell.

The characters in this book basically run around seeing who can balance the most apples on their heads. They get chased by angry bears and hungry birds who are all trying to take the apples. It's all very tense - Who will balance the most apples?? Will the bears get the apples with the deadly mop?? Will the birds eat the apples?? - at least until the end of the book when all of the animals conveniently crash into a huge apple cart, there is a huge apple explosion, and everybody (even the birds) ends up with ten apples on the head and a big smile on the face.

Jules and I read this book today and attempted to balance apples on our heads, which is a very hard thing to do. If you have never tried it, I suggest you do, so that you can appreciate the difficulty of what you're about to see.

Here is Jules' first attempt (note the red dot on his forehead):



Ok, so that was a fail...

Here is his second, successful attempt, minus one apple:



Here is my attempt (digitally captured by Jules the photographer):



Do you KNOW how hard it is to balance two apples on your head, hold a book, AND still manage to smile?? It's HARD!! Those animals in the book might have been able to balance ten, but we were doing well to get two!

Anyway, after we dropped the apples a hundred times, they weren't good for anything except HOMEMADE APPLE SAUCE!! Which turned out to be fabulous, and which, of course, Jules hated. Anyway, fun times, fun times.

I love that my world revolves around children.

It's all in a day's work, folks,
That girl in Switzerland