polysyllabicism.

in the middle of the week preceding her 2nd birfday, cybele decided to start speaking alot more. her ability to speak had been quite good before, but she lacked any desire or motivation to do so. suddenly she found it fun to repeat anything she felt like saying. always a good time to start watching what we say. so far, she loves to mimic sophia when the latter utters one of her favorite phrases, 'it's not fair!' the unexpected windfall from this phenomenon is that it disarms sophia and relieves her of her feelings of injustice and dissatisfaction, because it is so funny to hear cybele mush up and soften the sounds in the words and regurgitate them: 'ithnawfeeeaaahhh.' i have also succeeded in getting her to say 'i drive a car' but with less consistency and enjoyment.

Karate Kid

Cybele is now officially two years old. Behaviorally she has been two for about the last five or six months but she likes to do things ahead of the curve so my 18 month old was frequently greeted with the reassuring words from strangers "don't worry she's just going through the terrible twos". But she's not two! Well now she is and after spending her birthday with her getting shots at the doctor, having her blood drawn (mean!) and then finally braving the Indiana State Fair, I think I understand why she acts the way she does. We clearly do not know how to entertain this little monster. She did not want to have deep fried pepsi (I am serious about that one and I don't know how it is done) and she thought the barking sheep was a dog, the doctor was not any fun and then after all that we made her have a nap. We are seriously the meanest parents ever. The good thing is we finished the night off in our typical style with a big dinner and lots of adoring adults. We had mac and cheese and black eyed pees and Cybele killed her dinner with karate.

devotion

elias--who i have recently discovered is referred to at school, not always with proper or sufficient appreciation, as 'the bird genius kid' (they'll pay)-- is growing very quickly, it seems to me. i mean he's enormous. but he's still a little boy who adores his mommy. he'll follow her anywhere, probably even into oncoming traffic. he even gets up with mary at 5:30 a.m. on days when she has work, cus he doesnt want her to go, or at least doesnt want her to have to go off lonely. so he gets up with her and they sit around eating english muffins and watching transformers. it's barely even dawn. but mommy's there, so to elias, it's a party.

Elias X 3 Years

back when we were living in Richmond

afterwards bele came along

off to the keys for family vacation

returning to the swing

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.