Rone was pretty much surrounded by girls yesterday, and was getting frustrated. Cue Uncle John to save the day in an unexpected way--with a dirt bike. Rone got a nice long ride, while the girls trailed after. Eventually, they got turns too, but not until Rone was converted to a huge fan of John's.

It's a justified hate, though. Rone has a bald spot, a result of him pulling gum out of his flat-top. How did it get there? "I don't know, maybe I'm a gum magnet?" Turns out, he was making a big smile with his gum (?), and it got In his hair. Yay.

So we're back to my mean mom no gum ever rule.

Ten pounds of carrots is just too many. Even with the kids convinced carrot bread is dessert, we'll never get through them all. Another Costco lesson lived and learned.
Would you like to know why Seph doesn't like peanut butter cookies? According to Rone, "It's the pants! Pants!" We all fell about, while he tried to explain that he was saying 'peanuts'. Given I'm usually the one hollering at him about pants (keep them on, put them in the laundry, gitcher hands outta them), this cracks me up just typing it. Pants!

And last, they've really mucked up Sesame Street. They changed the song and opening credits, so they're pretty much no longer even recognizable. It's sad. Seph is even indignant on my behalf. So I'm going to have to start Netflixing early seasons, or buying them or something. At least if I find the early ones I'll get to see the old Kermit and news reporter covering breaking nursery rhyme news.

"Look Mom! It's a dead king butterfly!"--Rone, finding a dead monarch butterfly.

"I'm not feeling very wakey-uppyish."--Rone.

"Yes, everybody poops, but not plants."--Seph, after finding a book called 'Everybody Poops' at the bookstore.

Cotton would rather eat limes than polenta.

We've started just cutting knots out of Seph's hair, rather than try to make her sit still long enough to work them out. Rone's hair is just getting cooler and cooler, but both he and Chance want to cut it. I'm hoping they won't get to it before we leave on our trip.

I think we are all happy we live in Austin. It's ludicrously hot for too much of the year, I agree. And there isn't enough water around. But where else do my kids get to see a guy biking down the road on a unicycle. And not any unicycle, but a full-out 6-foot tall unicycle that mom will pursue in a minivan, just to see where he's going. Which was the bus stop. Where he was high enough to hang on the roof of the shade cover and hang out a bit.

And then today, we had the 8-cycle. I've got no idea what was going on, but it took up a lane of traffic. It was a circular bike, with 8 people pedaling, and one person seemed to be steering the lot of them. I talked about it with the kids, and we all agreed that one person would need to be in charge of the steering. The fun thing to me was that I didn't see anyone over the age of 12 or so on that bike. Was it some sort of school project? A new commuter vehicle? I don't know. That's something that happens in Austin. You run into stuff that makes you think.

Seph has been busy. She's had a Campfire ceremony, a ballet performance, and a piano recital. When we had our weekend away, she did the water slide and the whole tubing river by herself. She had a sleepover at a friend's house, got a pet (a robot dog), and this morning is writing a book. She's reading all the time, likes graphic novels, and reads Shel Silverstein to Cotton.

She's learned a lot this year, and I'm proud of how she worked on things even when she wasn't too excited about them (1-minute math drills, ballet). I'm going to use our vacation as time to talk to her about the sorts of things she's hoping to do next year. Some things are certain--Campfire, Science Club, piano. Some things are up in the air, like tennis, a play, ballet, bug club, chess club, and math team. There are a lot of possibilities.

Rone swears he doesn't like deviled eggs. I know he loves them, but he's telling me no, he doesn't want to help me make them. So I ask Seph. Who asks, "Are those the eggs that you make with the egg frosting?" Yes, I answer, thinking that's a pretty good description. We talk it over, and she wants to do the frosting part. At which point Rone says he wants to do frosting. I point out that he'll need to eat an egg for that, and he makes his thinking face then tells me I didn't tell him they were that kind of deviled eggs. He likes *that* kind.

Rone's got a new superpower--he can make anything my fault.

I haven't updated in a while, because we've had a crazy month. Yesterday was piano lesson, out to visit friends, museum trip, karate lesson, then out to supper with three other families. All in one day. Today we're recovering. And going to Seph's piano recital in the evening, very exciting. Yesterday Rone did his yellow belt test at karate and was super. Last month he was so upset that he didn't get to test, and then he was the only one doing it this month. I was nervous for him. He did great, though, and when he got his belt from his instructor and ran over to me the look on his face was so happy and proud I nearly cried. I should maybe get my hormone levels checked or something. We also went out of town on Mother's Day weekend, with Chance's work. We went to the Lost Pines resort, and it was a lot of fun. It's very kid-friendly, with free smores by the fire, and a great pool with a beach (!) and a tubing river.

On Mother's Day:

I keep meaning to do a whole homeschooling post, going over what we're all doing. I'm wrapping up a lot of stuff now, and getting ready for the big trip, so maybe I'll get to that before I go. I'm in list mode, making lists of things I need to get, things we need to pack, people I should call, and the best one, The List of Lists. Yes, I'm just that awesome. Or OCD. One of those.

Our group had a naming ceremony today. It reminded me of being a Brownie and what a big deal it seemed to fly-up to Juniors. There was a little bridge to walk over and everything! It seemed huge to me as a kid, and when it was finally my year to fly up I hadn't outgrown that.

I'll let Seph post her name, but she did great today. She was nervous on the drive up to the meeting, because she wasn't sure what would be going on, and my reassurances to her involved pointing out that she could do what the other kids did. And then, the way things sorted out, she was (of course) first. I got a few worried glances, but she was great. I was very proud of her for not getting up to check in with me.

And Cotton has had enough of this typing nonsense. Somehow the male hula dancer show on PBS isn't occupying her the way I thought it would. Huh. Imagine that. I'm pretty diverted, I'd say.

This weekend had one busy day, and one slow day. That's a good set up for us, because then I feel like we got something done, but we can still all goof off.

Yesterday kicked my butt, though. I think it was my second supermom day in one week, which is a record! I took Seph to the mall (!) for a birthday at a bizzarro place called Libby-lu that was a makeover (!) party. At 10am on a Saturday I did this. That alone would be sufficient to warrant a day being called 'busy' in my world, but there was more.

We went to Momo's for a Little Lounge Lizards dance party at 12:30--this is a thing some moms here just organized, where they've got a dj, kid stuff and a family-friendly setting in a club that would normally not be a kid place. It was a lot of fun. There's a roof deck, and a dance floor, snacks and a list where you can write down what song you'd like to hear. My kids? They want to hear Gwen Stefani swing Sweet Escape, they do they do. They call it the WooHoo song.

Then we went to the Elks for the kid's day. There was a ladder fire truck, an ambulance (Rone tried to jam his hand into the freaking sharps disposal container. twit), a K-9 unit, an several police cars. This part was pretty cool, but then they used the ladder truck to remove the old flag from the flagpole in front of the lodge and put a new one up. That was even cooler. Then there was swimming in the pool, which was too cold for adults and 4 year olds but just right for 6 and 7 year old girls. And then free hot dogs!

I know, you're so jealous that I knew where free hot dogs were this weekend! And also The Defuser, who happens to belong to the lodge. I know! I belong to the same lodge that a superhero does! I seem much cooler now to you, I'm sure.

After all that, I came home and napped with the baby. Who is now in possession of two teeth, and is mad that I'm typing for so long.

Rone's hair is at a very cool stage. The crew cut has grown out, and it's enough that it gets a pretty good bedhead shape overnight. Since we never comb his hair, over a few nights/trips through the sprinkler/splashes in the creek he's got a pretty weird thing going on. And the pointy blonde sideburn-like extensions in front of his ears crack me up.

It can also be entertaining to others, which was brought home to me when I took Rone and Cotton to the salad place while Seph was at ballet lesson (yes, I ate a salad. not everything I eat is fried or barbecued. just most of it). The salad place is staffed entirely by male hippies, since we're in Austin, with various hairdos of their own. They immediately reckognized Rone as one of their own, and started asking him how he got it that way, if he did anything special. Rone found this very odd, but did demonstrate a method of mussing up his hair further that they heartily approved of.

Today we went to UT, where I let a grad student use Cotton as a data point. Since we were on campus, and I knew it was only three blocks away and free, we went to the Texas Memorial Museum. We got to touch a dinosaur bone AND a meteorite. It's a pretty good day if you get to do that, so then we came home and washed the car for good measure. And the kids cleaned their room! And Cotton is asleep already! And I made a nutritious dinner that the kids actually ate!

Apparently I am supermom today. I only get one or two of those days a year, so I hope everyone isn't expecting too much tomorrow.