Rollercoasters

Earlier this month we all took a trip to Holiday World for Cybele's birthday and proceeded to go on rides that she is not big enough to go on without her. Sophia is a little thrill seeker and was happy to oblige and luckily she was about 1/4" within the height minimums.

She screamed the whole way through every ride and then finished up by telling Cybele she was sure her head almost fell off and it was AWESOME.

Maybe next year we will try a real theme park and some upside down rides. I don't think Sophia will turn down anything.

We had our very first ever camping trip and I am proud to say it was basically a success. I was never a camper growing up and I decided a while back that it was something I wanted to do with my own children so I hoped that they were ok with that. The youngest kid always gets the status of being the one that is holding back the rest of the family from whatever next activity is desired but Cybele is not like most youngest children.

We decided to go to Turkey Run here in the good ol' state of Indiana. We didn't want to venture too far before figuring out all the details. Turkey Run state park is beautiful. It is like stepping into a different time (if you can get away from the throngs of other visitors). What we did not anticipate (why?) is that Cybele would not walk on our hikes. She may have touched the ground for about five minutes before she insisted on being carried the rest of the way on our four mile hike.

But its not so terrible carrying Cybele. She often sings for the entire duration and gives you little upper arm and shoulder massages. Kisses are also a frequent treat and if you are really lucky she tucks her head into your neck and drifts off to sleep.

i just wiggled

cybele is putting together more coherent sentences, with more comprehensible intentions and descriptions. but she won't use nominative pronouns. so when she wakes up and want to know if mary is home or at work, she says, "where is her?" when she sees a cluster of bugs, she asks, "what is them?" she is looking forward to her birthday, which she talks about a lot (which is probably due to sophia's preoccupation with talking about birthdays) and will be thrilled if nothing else happens on that day besides a cake and a teddy bear. we recently took her to 2 events requiring some self-control, elias' piano recital and UP. at both, she stayed quiet satisfactorily, but ohmigawd she is hyperkinetic. one non-stop wiggle-wander-flip-flop-squat-hop.

identification

elias isn't always right. he thinks he is. and that's good, cus he's almost always right. today we saw some slow low-flying planes, which were here because this is indy on memorial day weekend. he said, 'oh my gosh, those are osprey planes.' they were pretty far off, so i was thinking, sure they are, whatever you say. when we got home though, they were flying directly over our house, and there was no doubt, after we looked closer (and i did a little research), that they were indeed osprey planes. it's the same with flying things with feathers, the only difference being that when he asserts which of those he sees in the air, i don't do research to confirm: he is the reference book. when his school went on a field trip to the indiana history museum, his acuity in zoological identification stunned their tour guide into silence. i'm not trying to show him off or anything, i'm just telling it as it is.

6 more weeks

The end is near. After nearly one year of torturing my little man, the date has been set for removing his braces. Yesterday he said to me "I feel like I have had braces since I was born".

always cold

Sophia is always cold. I think its cause she is so skinny or maybe cause she is always under dressed but whatever the reason, she's always cold.

If you think that maybe this would force her to wear more clothes, you are mistaken. Sophia refuses to close her coat and when given the opportunity to choose she always chooses a sleeveless summer dress. Lake Tahoe was not a natural first choice for Sophia with its six feet of snow but it did not change her behaviors either.

A short skirt and tights was her favorite outfit during our most recent vacation and it was always worn with an open coat and followed by the claim "I'm freezing"!

come on

sophia has recently started a new habit. when she wants something and it's not forthcoming due to the non-compliance of her parents, she says, "come on". this phrase can take on many different intonations. sometimes it is cute and coaxing, as in "come on you know you really want to let me." others, it is much more impatient and intolerant, as in "come on, you don't really think you are going to get away with saying no to me, do you?" so, understandably, her deployment of the phrase is by turns amusing and a bit infuriating. it's hard to get a 5-year old to appreciate the subtle differences that make it ok to try to muscle it at this time but not that. i think she knows to say it in different ways at different times, but doesn't appreciate how much difference the setting makes...so we're gonna put the kibosh on it for now. no more "come on"s to the parents. yes, that might work. i suspect she just might devise some other innovative way to push, pry and pull for what she wants, because she is in the middle.