Big Lubble

Last night was my turn to rock with Ian at bedtime.  As we snuggled in the rocking chair under a blanket of stars, Ian pointed in Orion's general direction and said, "Where's big lubble."

I was sure I didn't hear Ian correctly, so I asked him, "Where's what?"

He again said, "Big lubble."

I still had no clue what he meant so I started pointing out the major stars in Orion: Betelgeuse and Rigel.  I thought Betelgeuse has some of the same sounds as 'big lubble.'  This kind of pleased him and he told me that Cole had shown him these stars, but he was still trying to get me to understand "big lubble."

When Cole was done rocking with Eli, he came in to give Ian one final goodnight kiss.  I asked Cole if he knew what Ian was talking about, and a light bulb went on in Cole's head.  He got that wide-eyed "Ah-ha" look he gets when a thought suddenly hits him and said, "He's talking about the Hubble Telescope.  Is that what you're talking about, buddy?"

Ian was thrilled.  Yes, this was what he was talking about.  We all talked about outer space for a couple of minutes, and then Ian went to bed.

While I was getting ready for bed last night, I noticed an empty toilet paper roll in the trash.  (Don't worry; that was the ONLY thing in there)  I pulled it out, and took it to our bedroom.  I told Cole, "I'm going to turn this into the Hubble Telescope for Ian's room."

This morning I got started on furthering Ian's space interest by crafting the Hubble Telescope.  I used the toilet paper roll, aluminum foil, a shish kabob skewer, black adhesive foam, shiny silver scrapbook paper, black scrapbook paper, and scotch tape: all things I already had in the house.  The foam and scrapbook papers were left over from making the invitations for Ian's birthday party.  See, there really is benefit in spending four hours crafting invitations instead of just buying them!

Here is the end result with a picture of Hubble in the book Planet's!: Discover our solar system! by TIME for Kids.  It really is a great book in case you also have a little space nut.

Not the fanciest thing in the world, but I'm still proud of it.

After Hubble was all put together, it was time to launch him into orbit so he could send back valuable pictures of the stars on the ceiling.

Right in the center of Ian's ceiling

And so Hubble shall remain on the ceiling until we need to repair a lens or Ian or Eli rips it down.  I tried to tie the thread so this wouldn't be an issue, but with those two, who knows how long it will last.