G(lobal) P(ositioning) S(ophia)

Sophia would probably be happy if she could go to school year-round. she seems disappointed on days when she doesn't go to her school-run summer camp. today at summer camp, they're going swimmin', and one of the teachers told me they were going to attach a g.p.s. chip to sophia so they could keep track of her. (i think it was a joke.) sophia is extremely spritely when she gets to be doing exactly what she wants, and so full of an overabundance of exuberance that it is a dizzying pleasure to watch her. it is also really hard to keep up with her. i only asked the teacher that, if they are to install such a chip on her, we be allowed to take it home with us for other extra-curricular uses.
unrelated: the other day sophia came up to me with a thoughtful look on her face and said, "papa, how does my nose breath smell?"

Farm swing

We took our kids to a wonderful farm wedding yesterday and it struck me yet again how quickly and easily kids can become best friends. The uniting factor was a simple piece of rope tied to a tree over a hill which the kids took turns holding onto and falling off of, until the mystery man who led this troupe of kids on their swinging adventures tied a seat to the rope. This kicked things up a notch and got my heart beating a little faster as I watched my kids (sophia especially) fly at least twenty feet up in the air.

Sophia loves to swing and always has. Of all my kids she was the only one content in a baby swing for more than a couple of minutes. Even as a toddler I used to be able to garden with Phia sitting in the baby swing and Elias, Tristan and I would take turns walking over and pushing her really high only to let her swing herself back to a stop and wait for the next passersby. So I suppose I should not be surprised that the consensus is that Sophia loved swinging the most last night, she always has.

red-stained shirt

cybele is up and down, hot and cold, all or nothing, infuriating or lose-your-pants charming. for instance, i want her to enjoy a bowl of strawberries with me. we drop off the bigkids at camp and head downtown to the a-farmer's a-market. we get a couple-a quarts of the last berries of the season. among other things. we get home and i wash them, and she looks interested, maybe even enthusiastic. but i dont let her run around with the bowl, and i dont give her my coffee spoon to eat them with. so she scoffs and sneers at them. fine with me, whatever. i drink my coffee and absently eat a berry now and then. but when i set my spoon on the side of the bowl, she zooms to the table, convinced i have kowtowed to her demands, and commences to house every last berry, hand over fist, breathing only thru her nose, juice dribbling down her perfect chin, onto her hand-me-down pirate shirt from captain james via 'phia, and she glares at me when i try to take one to eat myself. then they are gone and we are both pleased.

Baby Bear

It has been close to forever since I last blogged. Since then, Elias turned 7, Sophia turned 5 and we bought a house. So it's not like we are just sitting here twiddling our thumbs. We have been busy, I swear.

Cybele is continuing to be a maniac child. Recently she was heard screaming and I found her covered in blood. She somehow managed to smash her little face, right by her eye, into the new slate hearth at our shiny new house. She had blood pouring down her face and I was certain that we were going to be taking our first emergency trip to the hospital. Ultimately, I calmed down applied pressure and bandaged her up. Good as new, except now we get those looks when we are out in public from all the self righteous people implying that we are either beating our toddler or neglecting her.

We are doing neither one of course and Cybele really is a darling she is just younger than she thinks she is. She wants so badly to be seven or even five like her big siblings. She hates her diaper and is trying to potty train herself and is able to escape all things baby, i.e. cribs, high chairs, sippy cups. It is endearing and exhausting but mostly it makes me sad that she is so eager to grow when I am so eager to keep her young.

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.