Elias, National Science Correspondent

elias has become an extremely proficient cyclist, and in the process, has developed fine scouting skills. yesterday, he curbed his bike by our new house in time to spot the frog before it hopped into the ditch. then, he lead us around the corner, where he prudently noted the location of the greatest small-bird-racket, and fixed his perspicacious gaze there, until he saw the thing we were there to see: the Cooper's Hawk who lives there with his old lady. he uses deductive reasoning and environmental clues to locate what he seeks to find. come on, that's hot.

My sweet little bunny

Some of you may know that Elias inherited my teeth. He has teeth in now that shouldn't be in for another six years or so and while this doesn't sound so terrible to be advanced, the fact is, that there isn't enough space for the teeth that should be coming in the next year or so. So he is getting braces and in case you forgot, he is six. SIX! Who gets braces when there six?

So Elias needs something on the top of his mouth to push his teeth out wider and then later he needs traditional braces on six teeth to try to push his teeth back, therefore making the most room possible for the teeth that currently have no where to live. Also, as you might see in this picture and in pictures from earlier in the blog Elias inherited a really cute trait from Tristan, a little gap in the front teeth. Hee hee. I think that is what sealed the deal for me when it came to Tristan. I just love that gap. Even Madonna has one and she has been hip for almost half a century. But I learned at Elias' orthodontist appointment that he is not such a big fan of gaps in the front teeth. Elias was able to pick out the impressions from several lying around that belonged to him. When I asked him how he knew they were his he said "because they have bucked teeth". WHAT?!? I informed Elias that he does not have bucked teeth and he said "my teeth are totally oversized... they are way out of proportion with the rest of my head... they are like rabbit teeth". What kind of six year old has these sorts of insights about his body and appearance. I guess the kind that gets braces of course.

beef and cheese.

i took the little girls to get chili for lunch, & as we start eating, sophia turns to me and says, 'ya know papa, it's important to have a healthy colon.' i say to her, yes it is important, to which she replies, 'because if your colon is healthy, you'll be healthy, and that's good to be healthy.' and i agree, then ask her where she heard such a thing. she said either Fairly Oddparents, or Jimmy Neutron, i cant recall which exactly. then i ask, 'sophia, do you know what a colon is?'
'Nope', sophia says, unsurprisingly.
i tell her she can ask mommy when she gets home from work, and that for now we should just eat our food. but she spent the rest of our chili lunch declaiming the benefits of colon health, while feasting on beef and cheese.

$40 haircut

Sophia came with me to get a $40 haircut. I almost sh*t my pants when I realized I was paying that much for the haircut but Tristan has complained about every haircut we have gotten at cookie cutters thus far, so I went to a grown up salon. I think they may have charged me for the inconvenience of cutting a child's hair because it was clearly not something they do often and I think they may have felt that they were too good for it. Oh well, she was a sport. She had to sit on her feet on a thick pad to reach her head back into the sink for the shampoo. She has never had that experience and she loved it. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and I think she might have drooled. Then later she was getting the actual cut and Sophia surprised me. She scowled the entire time. She didn't participate in the hair stylist banter (i.e. seeing anyone new, and what sort of work do you do), she didn't smile and she didn't look away from herself in the mirror for one second. She also didn't complain that it hurt to have her hair brushed or dried so I just chalked up the scowling to Sophia being a diva. Well what do you think... Is she a diva?

adaptation

cybele is so mercurial. last night at dinner, with 8 people there, she is a monstrous thing. today, i impulsively take all three kids, by myself with no backup, to "ted's montana grill", yes that's correct, "right said ted" has their own restaurant now (it's surpisingly masculine and clubby...no, not that kinda club); and all 3 kids were great, we had fun, no outrageous demands to treat the place like a jungle gym or a coloring book. it's like cybele flips a switch to one parent mode. i've noted all of our kids have done this, and it defies my understanding, or at least expectations. maybe children just get really pacified by severed bison heads on the walls and gingham napkins (based on the "right said ted" videos i've seen, i was expecting a mirror ball and probably leather napkins); or maybe it was just exceptionally good mac and cheese.

Sleeping on the floor

Cybele looks a lot like this these days. She is going through a difficult phase and it means that she is frequently in time out and she is always pissed. She is a straight-up monster. And she thinks she's big. She quit her crib. I am so not ready for her to quit her crib but the thud I heard yesterday and the bruise on her poor little head all speak to the fact that the crib sleeps Cybele no longer. Our plan was to teach Cybele how to sleep in a bed this summer before she started climbing out of the crib but she beat us to it. So now we have a mattress on the ground in her room and we are letting her work it out. She seems to do ok with it, but I wonder what she does in there with a room to herself. Maybe she is serene, with all her new responsibilities and freedoms. Kind of like this...

to the rescue

elias is still a great older brother. cybele invariably asks for him within the 1st 3 minutes of waking. there are two pictures, at least, of him taking good doting care of his baby cousin grady. yesterday he rescued cybele just in time from falling off the jungle gym ladder on which she gotten in over her head. he keeps a good lookout. he is also handier every day in the kitchen and good with a shredder (tax season). yesterday he asked me if he could have cuddly-time, after cybele had hers. he's still a darling baby boy inside, and he doesn't mind it one bit.