"I can't wait 'til I'm 21."

"I'm going to live at home with you and Mom and not have a job and go clubbing every night."

The prologue of the new Jim Henson biography...

...describes the taping of this scene from "Sesame Street" in 1973.

"Joey--in a pink striped shirt with her long blond hair tied at the top of her head--was moved into position on a stool while Jim knelt on the floor next to her. Slowly he raised Kermit up beside her, eyeing the Muppet's position on a video monitor in front of his crouched knees. Joey's eyes locked immediately on Kermit. The frog was no mere puppet; Kermit was real."

When Joey deviated from the script by giggling "Cookie Monster" several times during the song, "all eyes in the studio were on the frog, waiting to see what Jim would do."

He just rolled with it, getting through the song, then having Kermit skulk away in exasperation.

"Joey stared after him. 'I love you,' she said, matter-of-factly.

"Jim bounced Kermit eagerly back toward the little girl. 'I love you too,' he said warmly.

"'Thanks,' said Joey. And she draped an arm around Kermit and kissed him on the head."

Looking forward to the rest of the book.

What I did this weekend instead of working on my manuscript

1. Attended a birthday party for Ethan's friend Zoe at Uno Chicago Grill.

2. Installed vintage "Edison" lightbulbs in the fixtures over our bathroom mirrors.

 

According to a home decorating website, the Edison lightbulb fad ended a couple of years ago. But we still have a white refrigerator from 1998, so being within two years of a fad is actually very good for us.

3. Got an old electric clock in the mail that I ordered from eBay last week, removed the non-working guts, and replaced it with a battery. It took way too long to get it to work right, and I'm afraid to go look at it right now to see if it's still keeping time. But...knock wood.

4. Installed new window blinds in the boys' room.

Their main window has been devoid of a curtain or blinds for almost a year while strangers peeked in at them playing Minecraft in their underwear at 2am. In fact, the blinds have been sitting on the radiator all that time--I've just been too lazy to actually install them. Thank God for manuscripts to give me something else to procrastinate about.

Note to Rolling Stone: don't hire Ethan as your music historian

I just sang two Elvis and Johnny Cash karaoke songs to Ethan while he was getting ready for bed.

He said, "Great, now I'll have '80s music stuck in my head tomorrow."

There are few things more fun than rowboating with a toddler in a tutu

This is L, my three-year-old friend with her new birthday tutu (from GrannyMade.com). We went rowboating in Central Park this afternoon.

No one else in my family wanted to go. Ethan wanted to stay home and play on the computer, Samuel had homework to finish, and Jen was too tired and wanted to just watch TV and veg. My poor little family has out-grown me. I'm forced to go rowboating with surrogate children.

There is too much evil in the world

And not enough joy.

Maybe this won't balance it out completely.

But it's a start.

New book

My third picture book, Beep, Beep, Go to Sleep: A Robot Bedtime Story, will be published by Little, Brown in fall 2015. Illustrator is Caledecott Honoree John Rocco, who did the picture book Blackout and illustrated covers for Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.

Today was the official announcement by Publishers Weekly.

You know, when I signed the contract for my first book, I didn't dare let myself get too excited. I didn't want to be all Eric Stoltz telling my friends I got the lead in "Back to the Future," lest something go wrong. I figured I'd contain my excitement for the day I could physically hold it in my hands.

I'm starting to feel more like a real author now, which is a good feeling. Will I ever be able to actually make a living doing this? Probably not. But I like having a creative purpose in life. I like the idea of creating something other than Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint decks. Writing something that makes a toddler giggle is a more important legacy for me than, you know, achieving 10% market-share growth.

Don't tell my boss.