Just to start, I'll post some recent photographs and news items. Q had a play date the other day with some friends - three of them, all told, which was a nice number - and only two brought their bicycles with them. The third opted to bring his scooter, which he came to regret, as he couldn't keep up with the other kids. And lo!, our neighbor, who coincidentally happened to be cleaning out his garage that day, walked over and said "I've got a kids' bike here - Do you want it?" It was yellow and vintage-lookinig, but still dirt bike-y and cool enough to be very, very appealing to a seven-year-old. We pumped up the tire and ouala, there we were. I had the boys ride past his house in formation, saluting, and shout "THANK YOU!" He waved and grinned back at them. Then it turned out he had another one in there, and so now we have two extras for when Q's friends come over! What a great turn of events. At any rate, while those friends were over, Q learned to do some tricks on his bicycle, which I asked him to replicate tonight. He chose to do them on Colton's bike, which Colton had left here, since his dad was in too big a hurry to make his sister's soccer game to load it into the car just then. And thus was born the film of Q, to be found here:
Earlier in the day, T came up to me and decided to show me how to do some magic tricks. She's seen Q doing some, as well as some that I do that are not tricks at all - I hold up both my hands, with my index fingers and thumbs forming circles; then I put them behind my head, and after a few moments, I pull them back up over my head, and - BEHOLD! The circles are JOINED...! (Anyone else out there who had Russ Gilbert as a fifth-grade teacher can also hum the musical accompaniment traditional to this spectacular move.) T decided to do a trick involving a disappearing quarter. This seemed eminently filmable, and so here it is: T doing her prestidigitation. (I love how Hobie bails out once he figures out how it's done...)
Q does a trick that's actually kind of neat, where he shows you a coin in his hand and says he's going to make it move through his body, then tucks it secretly into the crook of his elbow, puts his thumb in his mouth as if trying to pull the coin out of his mouth, and seems to pop the coin out of there, when in fact it's just flown into the air because he straightened his elbow so fast. T decided to perform that one as well, though she has confused one or two key elements. If you watch at the end, you can see her say "Ta-Daaaa!"
And now, here are some recent photos:
Q and T help me bring firewood into the garage from the
woodpile in the back yard.
Q with the jar that holds the caterpillar that he found in the
neighbor's driveway. Asked how he'd managed such a feat, he replied
with the same words as his grandfather, when asked (by me) how it was
that he had captured a litter of coyote pups: "Sheer daring."
We went to Target today. See? We're just like regular people. Fame
hasn't changed us. It's not all glamor and papparazzi.
T ponders her future. But lest you think this was strictly the call
of gender working its magic, know this: Q was on the other side,
actively helping Mami choose one. (He'll be sooo happy I told you that
in ten years.)
